A 27-year-old mother from Indiana, already on probation related to the 2019 neglect-related death of her 6-month-old daughter, has been arrested again for allegedly leaving her four young children unattended at home for nearly two weeks.

Records show Tenisha Ann Echols was detained on Monday and is now facing multiple new charges of child neglect. As outlined in a probable cause affidavit, police responded around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday to a call from Echols’ mother. The call came after her 8-year-old granddaughter contacted her in distress, crying because she and her three younger siblings — ages 6, 2, and just 4 months old — had not seen their mother for the majority of two weeks.

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When officers arrived at the apartment complex on Troy Avenue, they found the door unlocked, observed partially-eaten food and trash scattered across the floor, and noted that the children’s beds featured only bare mattresses, indicating an adult had been absent for days.

The 8-year-old told police that Echols typically leaves her alone to care for the other children, including the infant. The child attempted to call her mom several times but Echols did not answer the phone, the affidavit says.

Police were able to get in touch with Echols, who arrived at the apartment at about 10 p.m., claiming she had just gone out briefly to “get medicine for one of the kids.” She was handcuffed and read her Miranda rights then subsequently agreed to speak with detectives.

Asked how long she had been gone, Echols allegedly said, “About 20 minutes.” Police noted the “time itself didn’t make sense” based on the facts provided by the grandmother and 8-year-old child.

When confronted with her daughter’s claims, Echols allegedly admitted that she had been out all day and usually “leaves her kids home alone with the 8-year-old at times because she doesn’t feel like dragging them all out of the house at once.”

Asked whether she thought it was safe to leave an 8-year-old in charge of a 4-month-old, police said Echols “gave no reply.”

Echols also told officers that most members of her family were blocked from calling her because she did not want to argue with them over “her sexuality.”

The children were removed from the house and placed in the custody of their grandmother.

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At the time of Echols’ arrest, she was still on probation for the December 2019 death of her infant daughter, De’Reya, who died of multiple blunt force injuries, Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV reported. An autopsy showed that the infant suffered multiple skull fractures, a large burn on her arm, and fractures to her tibia as well as her ribs. De’Reya’s death was ruled a homicide.

Echols in July 2023 pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. In a controversial decision that went against the recommendation of prosecutors, Judge Jennifer Harrison handed down a lenient sentence that included two years of home detention followed by two years of probation and no time in prison.

The latest neglect charges against Echols violated her probation, leading a judge to order that she be held in pretrial detention without bond until her next court appearance on July 8.