Couple Spends Honeymoon In Jail After Leaving Toddlers Home Alone To Get Hitched
Most couples plan their honeymoon in advance, booking plane tickets to Hawaii or a suite at the Hilton. Kymberely Frederick and Daniel Richards, however, aren’t even sharing a room on their honeymoon.
They are spending it in jail. In separate cells, no less.
Frederick, 30, and Richards, 34, face felony charges of child neglect after they reportedly left their one, two, and three year old children home alone while they ran off to the courthouse to get hitched. Apparently Frederick thought it was good enough to leave an instruction note at home for their school-aged kids who would be coming home later in the day. According to NBC News, the couple called a neighbor after they had left the house, asking her to look in after their six- and eight- year-old children after they came home from school. When they neighbor inquired about the younger three children, “Richards allegedly told her the kids were by themselves and sleeping.” The neighbor promptly called the police. The Examiner reports that the police found two of the children in cribs and the other sleeping. The police also found a note inside the home, cites The Stir, which directed the two older children to give the parents a call when they got home.
So what was the rush? Why get married, spur of the moment and in the middle of the week, without the kids in attendance? According to The Examiner, “they rushed to get married because Richards said he would have to pay child support if they were not married by September 10.”
The police estimate the couple was away from home for a little over an hour. Sgt. Jim Goodman of the Casselberry Police Department told NBC News, “If they were gone for five minutes and a child woke up, there are so many hazards in the home that could hurt or even kill a child.” Although the law doesn’t cite how old a child must be to be left at home alone, it is safe to say that age is older than three.
All five of the couples’ children are currently in foster homes. An upcoming hearing will determine whether or not the children will be returned to their parents.
