CNN – A Texas mother faces charges of abandoning her seven-year-old daughter after telling her to get into a dumpster where she spent the night by herself, police say.
Surveillance video shows the two checking into a spa on Saturday (March 28). After 9:15 p.m. that same evening, the manager of the spa said the mother was intoxicated, and the two left the spa.
An arrest report states that the mother and daughter were walking near a wooded area and creek when the pair suddenly started running. The daughter later told police her mother said to get into a dumpster because authorities were chasing them. The mother helped the daughter into the dumpster where she stayed alone for 10 hours, police said.
Police said they found the little girl walking back to the spa on Sunday morning (March 29), and she was filthy, hungry, thirsty and covered in scrapes on her arms and legs.
Major Robert Sherwin with the Dallas Police Department said, “Physically, she was fine. I think she was scared. People report she was very frightened.”
The mother returned to the spa on Sunday morning unable to find her daughter, and she called police when she couldn’t find her.
Later, she told authorities that she had left her daughter with a friend that refused to return her, according to an arrest report.
“I have two daughters, and I can’t believe this happened,” the spa manager said.
