A Leesburg babysitter was arrested after a child in her care was found wandering alone in a heavily soiled diaper.
Officers responded to an unattended child, later found to be in the care of 34-year-old Amy Brooke Evans, walking around a parking lot in Leesburg around 11:45 a.m. Thursday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. The child had a soiled diaper and only one shoe.
The caller stated she saw the child walking around the parking lot and helped the child sit down inside an undisclosed department store. The child was nonverbal and appeared to be severely autistic. The caller saw no parents around the area looking for this lost child, despite her and others walking around to find them. She then went to the manager to let her know what was happening and called 911, the report said.
The manager told an officer that she saw the same child enter the store with Evans about two days prior. The child had a heavily soiled diaper at the time and wore a different shirt, the report said.
Another concerned citizen stated she was in her vehicle when the child walked up and knocked on the window. She saw no parent or guardian near the child, so she got out of her vehicle to help. She walked around to the department store, where the child followed. The child did not look okay, as the diaper was soiled, and there were smears of feces on the jacket the child held, the report said.
Officers noticed the smeared feces on the jacket and some residue on the child’s person. The child had a heavily soiled diaper, which appeared to have not been changed in the last 24 hours. Multiple bruises and wounds covered the child’s arms, legs and hands. Lake County Fire Rescue was called for the evaluation and transportation of the child to a hospital for treatment, the report said.
Dispatch then received a 911 call at 12:20 p.m. from Evans, who stated she could not find the child. She advised that the child went missing about an hour ago from a residence 0.3 miles from the department store on Webster Street. Law enforcement met with her outside the home, the report said.
She explained that she had gone to shower at 11 a.m., and she was in there for no more than an hour. When finished, she went to change while her boyfriend slept on the couch. She then realized the child was not there and started looking around the house, the report said.
Evans gave different answers to multiple officers about where she lived. She stated the child went to the doctor for all the cuts, saying the child had self-harmed. The child slept in diapers, which were usually changed in the morning. She also stated she enrolled the child in a school last year, but she could not answer simple questions about it, the report said.
Her claims did not match the timeline for when officers responded to the department store for the missing child. Evans appeared to be apprehensive, fidgety and would “zone out” during the conversation. She seemed to be under the influence of narcotics, given her behavior, the report said.
She did not show any emotion regarding the child aside from briefly crying as she approached the officers. The most recent photo she had of the child was from a year ago. She added that the child became autistic and nonverbal out of the blue. The officers could not get a verified updated location from Evans, as she stated the child split time among three separate residences weekly, the report said.
The officers then spoke with Evans’s boyfriend. He stated that at around 11:30 a.m., he went into his bedroom while Evans got in the shower. The child was asleep at the time, the report said.
He subsequently got a call from work and had to go into the room to change clothes. He noticed the child was not there and ran outside to the backyard and surrounding rooms to check for the child. He next ran over to Publix and Dunkin’ Donuts since they frequented that area, the report said.
The boyfriend could not find the child and ran back to the residence, the report said. At that point, he saw Evans panicking and looking for the child, so they called 911. The officers also asked if there was food in the house, to which he stated, “Yeah, well, we have peanut butter and jelly.”
However, one of the roommates advised that Evans did not appear concerned with the child’s welfare, as the roommate had to instruct the couple to call 911. Evans seemed to be more concerned with taking a shower first and looking presentable before calling the police to report the child missing, the report said.
The roommate normally saw the child with a clean diaper, but the child always looked dirty and unkempt. She also did not normally interact with Evans and her boyfriend because she lived on the other side of the residence. She did not believe Evans knew how to properly take care of the child, the report said.
DCF was notified of this incident and met with the child at the hospital. Hospital staff saw a burn on the child’s left arm, which appeared to have been from a cigarette. They noted many other bruises and scars on the child’s body that could have been self-inflicted. It appeared the soiled diaper had not been changed in several hours, the report said.
Evans was ultimately arrested on charge of child abuse and booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $10,000.