Taylor Marie Kuhn: Oregon Mom Left Baby Alone In Tent For Hours, Police Say

Taylor Marie Kuhn, a 22-year-old Portland mom, is under arrest for allegedly leaving her 2-year-old baby in a tent for hours unattended.

The child was reportedly uncovered and confined to a play pen in a urine-soaked diaper and “thin pajamas,” KOIN reports. Overnight conditions were said to have reached as low as 45 degrees, so the child is lucky to be alive.

As for Kuhn, she was “sleeping in a car in the backyard with a meth pipe in her shirt,” authorities said.

The reason why neither were sleeping inside the house? Apparently, a tree had fallen on it and demolished the structure. A neighbor told the news site that there was “rampant” drug use at the home and frequent fighting.

“It’s embarassing to live there, to live next door to them,” said Rick Boardman in comments to the news site. “It really is.”

So embarrassing, in fact, that he said he and his wife no longer use their back porch because it faces the home. He told the press that other than Taylor Marie Kuhn and the 2-year-old, “the son of the house’s owner” stays there.

“He won’t let them in the house and they just live in the garage where there’s no water of plumbing or anything else,” said Boardman. “I don’t know where they go to the bathroom.”

According to a separate report from United We Stand Against Child Abuse, neighbors called police after hearing the child’s screams.

“Kuhn is still in jail with her next court appearance set for May 18. Contact with her child will only be with permission of DHS. It’s unclear where the child is now,” the group added.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time in the last month that the Inquisitr has reported on stories of children having to live in horrifying conditions.

Take, for instance, this story from March of this year about the parents of a child with autism, who locked their daughter in a basement.

Residents in the small town that is south of Dodge and northwest of Milwaukee were shocked when they learned about a girl forced to live in the basement of a suburban home. Affidavits on arrests claim that the parents — 41-year-old mom and 47-year-old father — kept their 13-year-old daughter locked in a basement daily in deplorable conditions.

The special needs girl suffers from a “low-level grade” of autism, which impairs her cognitive abilities. Apparently, police were tipped off by a caller who wished not to be identified. They claimed the girl was confined to an area of the home and alienated from the rest of the family.

Officials at the school the girl attends began noticing her reporting to class covered in body waste. Administrators noticed stool in her hair and all over her clothing. Fellow students teased and bullied her over the foul smell. However, the girl continued to report to school in the same condition, even after repeated reports to her parents.

Despite the girl’s struggle with the learning disability, she managed to communicate to investigators how she underwent the daily ordeal of being locked in a basement after she arrived from school. Reportedly, the parents sent their daughter straight to what some describe as a “dungeon”-like environment.

Do you think cases of child neglect like this and that described in the case of Taylor Marie Kuhn deserve long prison sentences or the care of a mental health pro? Sound off in the comments section.