MELBOURNE, Fla. — Two parents were arrested in Melbourne Thursday after police say they left their four young children alone in a filthy motel room without food, water or a way to reach them, police said.
Officers were called to the River Palm Motel on South Harbor City Boulevard at about 1 p.m. after receiving a report of a 6-year-old girl found wandering around the facility alone, the Melbourne Police Department said.
Officers met up with motel staff and the girl, who took them to her room where they found three more children, ages 7, 3, and 1, investigators said.
“The motel room the children were located in was in a less than sanitary and safe condition,” the MPD said in a media release. “Officers discovered no food or drinks for the children, only rotting food, bed sheets soiled with human waste, dirty diapers left exposed, and numerous cigarette butts on the floor within immediate reach of all the children.”
The room was located on the second floor of the motel near a concrete stairwell, police said.
Children also had easy access to the facility’s pool and a major roadway, U.S. 1, ran next to the motel, investigators said.
Officers searched for the children’s parents, using phone numbers listed when the family checked into the hotel and law enforcement databases.
They also started calling local hospitals in an attempt to located the parents, investigators said.
After more than an hour, the children’s parents, Shandra Gatlin, 33, and Samuel Rodney, 34, returned to the motel, police said.
“The parents provided a story of their whereabouts, however, the information provided could not be corroborated, nor was any valid reason for leaving the children unattended for a minimum of an hour and a half provided,” the MPD release said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families responded to the motel and took the children into custody.
Gatlin and Rodney were arrested and charged with child neglect.
Cox Media Group
