Inset: Elena Sexton (Miami-Dade County Corrections & Rehabilitation). Background: Town Center Park in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. (Google Maps).
A mom visiting a Florida park with her 6-year-old son got in trouble with the law after police said she left the boy alone.
Elena Sexton, 41, a Texas native, is out on bond after being arrested for child neglect on Saturday. According to an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, police responded to Town Center Park in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, around 9 p.m. on Saturday after receiving a call about a young boy with no parent or guardian in sight. The man who called 911 told police that the 6-year-old boy approached him “and said he was alone” and “scared” because his mother, later identified as Sexton, “left him.”
When Sexton came back to the park, she was taken into custody by police.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Police from the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department arrived at the scene and found the witness, who told police he believed the boy had been alone for at least an hour. According to the affidavit, the boy told the witness that he “had not eaten since breakfast time.”
When police asked the boy where his mother was, he told them that she “left him to be with a friend to get food.” He told police that he was “scared” and did not want to leave the park “with a stranger.”
Before Sexton came back, police searched the park and surrounding area for her with no success. Sexton later returned to the park where she allegedly left her son and found police officers waiting for her.
After she was taken into custody and read her rights, Sexton told police that after bringing her son to the park, she went back to her car to “get some toys.” While she was there, she “saw a friend” who invited her to get food, and she allegedly “partook, while leaving [her son] at the park.” Police did not specify how long the boy was allegedly left alone.
Police contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Sexton was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She posted $2,500 bond and was released. Her next court date was not immediately available.
The post Mom left her 6-year-old at the park by himself after she bumped into a friend and went to get food: Police first appeared on Law & Crime.
