In a bizarre case of apparent parental negligence, a mother from Indiana, Ashley Ellis, has been arrested by the local police. The 42-year-old mother was taken into custody on Thursday on the grounds of sheer child neglect. According to the local police, Ellis was arrested after she reportedly handed a bottle of vodka to her 16-year-old daughter and her teen friend and left them to take care of her one-year-old child, who was found crying and chanting “mommy, mommy” while wandering on the streets.
According to the records accessed by Law & Crime, Ellis was taken into custody late last week. According to the reports, Ashley Ellis has been charged with neglecting a dependent and also with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
It all began on July 5 this year, when a one-year-old baby, in a soaked diaper, was spotted strolling through the streets of Evansville around 5 a.m., with shrieks of “Mommy, mommy” echoing, according to a report by a local news outlet. Seeing the distressed baby wandering around, the neighbor brought the kid inside, changed the diaper, and instantly dialed 911.
The search for the baby’s missing parent led the police to Ashley Ellis’ 16-year-old daughter and her friend, 15, at Ellis’ house. Shortly after the police’s arrival, Ellis’s 16-year-old daughter experienced what appeared to be a seizure and was admitted to a hospital.
What followed was deeply concerning. During an interview with the police, the 15-year-old revealed that Ellis fostered delinquency of minors by giving her daughter and a friend a bottle of vodka, before she left in the wee hours. Both teens took around three shots, claimed the 15-year-old friend.
It was around 2:30 a.m. that the friend heard the baby crying in the home. Two hours later, the drunk teens began vomiting, which is supposedly when the baby stepped out on the streets. According to the friend, the baby was straying outside for about 30 minutes.
The police made repeated attempts to call the mother, but to no avail. Not for at least the next two days. After further interrogation, Ashley Ellis spoke to the investigating agencies. During her interaction, she maintained that she intended to stay out only for a while and return home later that morning. Ellis said that she “panicked when she learned what happened.” According to news publication WFIE, she also refused to undergo a drug test.
Ellis blatantly denied the claims that she gave her teen daughter and her teen friend a bottle of vodka and said that a bottle had been sitting in a freezer and that the teens had been wanting to try it for a while. And that they might have taken her absence as a green signal to consume the adult beverage.
The case that began in July finally came to an end two months later when the Indiana resident was booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail on Thursday.
