Baby left home alone three weeks

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl left alone for nearly three weeks while her mother was in jail survived by eating mustard, ketchup, rice and raw pasta, police said.

The toddler was watching cartoons when found by her father, said police in Jacksonville, Florida. She was suffering from malnutrition and was being treated in hospital yesterday.

Dakeysha Lee, 22, was charged with child abuse because she failed to let anyone know that her daughter was alone in her apartment when she was jailed on September 10 on unrelated charges.

Ogden Lee, who is separated from the girl’s mother, said he talked to her by phone at the jail on Sunday and she said their daughter was with neighbours.

When he got into the apartment, the youngster had dragged food and toys into her mother’s bedroom and was lying in a baby’s bathtub. She was covered with dried ketchup, Lee said.

“She grabbed me and wouldn’t let go of me,” Mr Lee said.

“It is really a miracle how good a shape my daughter is in. I don’t know how she did it.”

The child was recovering from malnutrition yesterday and the hospital said she was in good condition.

“She’s sitting up in the bed and laughing and playing with the nurses,” said hospital spokesman David Foreman.

Mr Lee said he had been trying to contact the mother for two weeks and did not learn until Sunday that she was in jail for assault and theft

The little girl had been left alone since her mother was jailed on September 10 for aggravated assault and petty theft. The mother was charged on Monday with child abuse, and was being held yesterday on $20,000 bond.

Dakeysha Lee was represented by the public defender's office on the original charges, but it has not been assigned the child abuse case. Her appointed attorney was not immediately available for comment.