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Inset: Daionjanee R. Young (Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office). Background: The neighborhood around Winterhalter Street in Lake Charles, La., where Daionjanee Young resides (Google Maps).
A Louisiana mother is accused of abandoning her children in an apartment littered with feces, soiled diapers, a “bucket of urine,” and other deplorable conditions. Authorities report that she left them to care for themselves while she went out to “grab food” and meet with a “friend” in the early hours of the morning at 2 a.m.
Daionjanee Young, 25, from Lake Charles, faces charges of four counts of child desertion and four counts of cruelty to juveniles, as per the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office. These charges came to light after authorities discovered the circumstances her children were allegedly exposed to last Friday.
“At approximately 10:00 a.m. Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a welfare check at residence in an apartment complex on Winterhalter Street in Lake Charles after receiving a report of four children, under the age of 6, being unsupervised,” cops said in a press release.
“During the investigation, CPSO Special Victims Unit detectives arrived on scene and observed the apartment to be covered in feces with a bucket of urine inside,” CPSO officials alleged. “The children were observed to be soiled, with the youngest having a severe diaper rash.”
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When police arrived at the home, Young was allegedly nowhere to be found. She returned to the apartment approximately two hours after deputies got there and launched their investigation, per the sheriff’s office.
“When detectives spoke with her she stated she left the children sleeping at the home around 2 or 3 a.m. to pick up food but found the fast food restaurant to be closed,” CPSO officials said. “She advised detectives she then went to a friend’s house, where she fell asleep.”
Young was arrested and booked into the Calcasieu Correctional Center, with her bond still pending Monday. CPSO Sheriff Stitch Guillory said in a statement Friday that it was “heartbreaking” to see children living in such bad conditions.
“We appreciate the community members who alerted us to this situation,” Guillory said. “The children have been placed in state custody by the Department of Child and Family Services.”
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