TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Police arrested the mother of a 4-year-old boy and two day care workers Thursday after the boy in their care was reported missing earlier in the week.
The boy was found the same day.
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The boy's mother, Tiffani Hernandez, was arrested just before 2 p.m. Thursday and booked into the Brevard County Jail.
Ashley Anderson, 24, and Wanda Curry, 50, were booked into the Brevard County Jail just after noon, Titusville police said.
All three suspects are charged with third-degree felony child neglect.
The boy, DeShawn Harris, was reported missing Tuesday in Titusville. He was found about 2-½ hours after the search began.
Hernandez flagged down officers at the motel at about 5 p.m., saying that the boy was playing with his siblings, ages 6 and 7, in the parking lot 30 minutes earlier and he'd since gone missing. The children did not have adult supervision, the affidavit said.
DeShawn fell asleep in the day care van on the way home at 4 p.m. Tuesday and was unnoticed by employees, Titusville police said in a news release.
Hernandez was in the shower when the van arrived to drop off her other children. A day care worker asked to speak with her to tell her that her children needed to get more sleep because they were regularly falling asleep during school, Titusville Police said.
After that conversation, Hernandez went to the bathroom for an "extended period of time" while the children went to play in the parking lot, which sits near U.S. Highway 1. Hernandez told authorities that she thought Deshawn was with them, the report said.
Hernandez realized Deshawn wasn't with her other children when a neighbor summoned her from the bathroom to tell her that her 7-year-old child had climbed on top of a building and she needed to go get him, according to police.
The boy told officials that when he awoke in the van he unbuckled himself, get out of the van and walked back into the daycare, the report said. An employee who stayed late for a staff meeting found Deshawn and drove him to the motel.
The day care van arrived at the Budget Motel 2 hours after the boy was reported missing, and Titusville police detectives found him there.
Walter Harris, Deshawn’s father, said day care workers from Shining Star Learning Center delivered the boy home.
Detectives spent the night interviewing the boy, his mother and other people to determine whether the 4-year-old didn't get off his bus Tuesday afternoon, if he walked the 1-mile distance to the day care center or if something else happened.
The day care director told officials that Hernandez has forgotten to pick up her children on multiple occasions. She cited several instances when Hernandez would wouldn't arrive until staff called her and reminded her, sometimes as much as two hours after the day care had closed, the affidavit said.
An employee at the motel told authorities that Hernandez regularly lets the children play in the parking lot without adult supervision. Two weeks prior, a man came into the motel and let employees know that he almost struck one of the children who wandered into the road.
The Department of Children and Families has investigated Hernandez in the past following allegations of substance abuse and inadequate supervision, police said. The case was closed after Hernandez was given resources to help her adequately care for her children.
This is a developing story. Check back to ClickOrlando.com for updates.