LAKE MARY, Fla. - A woman has been arrested in Brevard County on an active warrant for child neglect, accused of locking a two-year-old girl inside a dark, hotel closet.
Patricia Ann Childress, 25, was taken into custody at the hotel in Melbourne after deputies said they found the child with dried food on her face and hair, and she was only wearing a shirt with no pants and a urine-and-feces-soiled diaper.
"The closet had no lights, no toys, no food, no water and only contained a pillow and a blanket," the Brevard County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post.
Deputies said Childress first told them the child wanted to be in the closet, "but later admitted to locking the child in the closet over night because she was frustrated with dealing with the child."
Childress was arrested on an additional charge of aggravated child abuse "for maliciously punishing her child by locking her in the closet for extended periods of time," the Sheriff's Office said.
