Collier County sheriff’s deputies arrested a woman Thursday after they say her two children couldn’t find her and sought help from a stranger, who took care of them for several days.Maria Miguel Lopez, 31, who gave a general delivery address in Immokalee on arrest reports, was charged with child neglect.
Reports say Cecilia Castillo, 37, told deputies that Lopez’s two children, 9 and 10, showed up at her residence on South 7th Street in Immokalee around 5 p.m. Thursday and told her they could not find their mother.
Castillo told deputies that this had been a recurring problem over the past month. The children would show up at her house because they couldn’t find Lopez. Castillo fed the children, gave them a place to sleep, did their laundry and made sure they made it off to school.
Castillo told deputies she had not agreed to watch the children, but did so out of necessity because nobody appeared to be taking care of them.
Deputies located Lopez in a trailer across the street. She told deputies that she did not have a home and had been staying with friends, but that her children had not been staying with her.
