Background: The 700 block of West 37th Street, Hialeah, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: Heidy Diaz-Torres (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A Florida mom is accused of neglecting her kids after neighbors allegedly found two unclothed toddlers wandering alone on the sidewalk near her home.
Heidy Teressa Diaz-Torres, 25, is facing a charge of felony child neglect with no great bodily harm, according to Miami-Dade County court records. The children, ages 1 and 3 years old, were found on Tuesday by two women who spotted them in the 700 block of West 37th Street in Hialeah, a city just northwest of Miami. Local local ABC affiliate WPLG, citing a police report, said that the women told officials that one of children was able to tell them where they lived, and the women walked them to their home.
When they arrived, they were reportedly quite alarmed by the response they got from the kids’ mother: according to the police report, she just “shrugged and waved her off.”
“When approaching the residence, officers witnessed the children walk outside unsupervised and the mother was not in sight,” the police report said, according to WPLG. “Due to this, officers entered the residence believing the children could be in further danger. Upon entering the residence, [Diaz-Torres] was asked multiple times if she knew where her children were. She did not answer[.]”
Diaz-Torres reportedly did say something after being asked if she knew where her kids were, but that was apparently redacted from the report. Police said that she “appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance,” WPLG reported.
Those suspicions were allegedly confirmed when officials, doing a sweep of the home, “observed two pipes with residue of suspected methamphetamine in plain view,” the police report said, according to the station.
Police then called the Florida Department of Children and Families, who came to the home, WPLG reported.
She was arrested Friday and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and released after posting $2,500 bond. Court records show she has a court appearance scheduled for May 23.
