A Louisiana couple has been arrested after leaving their 5-year-old daughter with a stranger and disappearing on Valentine’s Day.
The Baton Rouge couple, Lacey Allen, 32, and Shane White, 37, reportedly left their daughter with a woman, who they did not know, at the Fountain Hotel on the afternoon of Feb. 14, saying that they would be back in 45 minutes, Daily Mail reports. When the parents had not returned two hours later, the woman contacted police.
When the woman brought the girl to the police, they contacted the Office of Children & Family Services, according to The Advocate.
Police found the White and Allen later that night when the couple arrived at the Woodacres Motel, where they had been living. Police also found another child, 2, in the couple’s car, which was filled with trash and dirty diapers. The car had only one child’s car seat.
The hotel room was “filthy,” according to police, with food and clothes on the floor, rotting food on the stove, a sink filled with dirty dishes, and an almost-empty refrigerator which contained only a mostly empty bottle of milk.
The only furniture in the room was a queen bed, two tables and a nightstand. It is unclear where the children had been sleeping.
The parents were charged with child desertion and two counts cruelty to juveniles. Allen and White were given a drug test and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
The two children have been taken into the Office of Children & Family Services’ custody.
Sources: Daily Mail, The Advocate / Photo credit: Facebook via Daily Mail, Baton Rouge Police via Daily Mail
