DATE: Dec. 20, 2007
TIME: 6:25 p.m.
LOCATION: 601 W. Delaware Ave.
VICTIMS:
Boy, 15,
girl, 14,
boy, 10,
girl, 7
boy, 5
girl, 4
boy, 3
boy, 2
boy, 8 months
Collier County sheriff's deputies discovered nine children, including an infant, left home alone in an Immokalee apartment for nearly a week after their parents left for Haiti over the holidays.
Reports give this account:
A woman contacted CCSO Thursday evening after she became concerned when one of the children came to school not dressed properly.
Deputies went to the apartment and spoke with a 14-year-old girl who answered the door. The girl told deputies that her parents went to Haiti and that her brother was taking care of her and her siblings. She said her brother was at work and did not know how to contact him.
A neighbor told deputies that the parents left on Dec. 14 and were to return on Dec. 27.
The apartment was filled with garbage, food and roaches, reports say. Four children were running around naked. In a back room, the infant was laying in a crib with crumbs and roaches crawling all over.
Deputies contacted the Department of Children and Families which decided to remove the children from the apartment.
The investigation continues.
