Inset: Ashley Burdick (Brevard County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The block in Merritt Island, Florida, where the suspect and victim lived (WOFL/YouTube).Â
A Florida mother is accused of leaving her young son alone for weeks in their home with “aggressive” dogs and unsanitary conditions throughout the residence.
Ashley Burdick, 41, stands charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, Brevard County court records state.
After her arrest, she has been released from jail.
On April 10, a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a home in Merritt Island, Florida, due to “a neighbor being concerned that a young child was left alone at home for approximately four days in the company of multiple dogs with no adult supervision,” according to an arrest affidavit.
The deputy pointed out that the “young child” had a “diagnosis for autism.”
The deputy “made contact” with the child, but the boy said “he could not answer the door due to the multiple aggressive dogs inside the residence” and instead they spoke through a bathroom window at the front of the house,” according to the charging document.
The child reportedly affirmed that he had been home alone for about four days, authorities say. He gave law enforcement officers his mother’s number, but when they tried to call her, they say the phone line went immediately to voicemail.
Deputies subsequently contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families to investigate.
When interviewed by a state investigator, the boy mentioned “physical violence being done to him” by his mother, according to the affidavit. He also said that “on one occasion he became intoxicated after drinking a juice in the refrigerator that, unknown to him at the time, contained moonshine alcohol.”
When the investigator went to the residence, “she noted that the conditions were unsafe for a child,” the charging document continues.
“She observed feces on the floor and overall unsanitary conditions,” the affidavit reads.
The child allegedly said that in the past he had been “left with no food and he did not eat for approximately two weeks,” according to the charging document. He allegedly added that “he does not feel safe” and that he is “not enrolled in any form of schooling.”
The redacted affidavit states investigators spoke with someone else who told them Burdick has given the child to her at times because Burdick needed a “break.” This witness also reportedly claimed that the defendant contacted her “and instructed her to not speak to the Department of Children and Families regarding the current situation.”
Burdick is expected to be arraigned in court on May 14.
