Charges: Mom Left 3 Young Kids Alone In Feces-Filled Apartment With No Food
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Twin Cities woman is accused of leaving her three young children home alone last week in a feces-ridden apartment with no food.
Twenty-six-year-old Stormie Gysbers, of Little Canada, is charged with one felony count of child endangerment and one gross misdemeanor count of child neglect, court documents filed in Ramsey County show.
According to a criminal complaint, police were called to her apartment in Little Canada on Friday on a report that three children – a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old – had been left home alone.
The 5-year-old told authorities that his mother had been gone since he had woken up, adding that he and his siblings were hungry. He said that she's left them alone in the past, and neighbors reported that the two older children ran down the halls, asking people for food.
In Gysbers' apartment, police found the floor covered with trash and dog feces. Police deemed the apartment unfit for human habitation.
The 6-month-old child was found naked in a urine-soaked crib. The sister used her own child's formula to feed the baby, who drank four bottles in one sitting.
The sister told police that Gysbers' boyfriend stopped by briefly, only to say: "It looks like Stormie left the kids alone again all day." He fled when he realized police had been called.
Police found Gysbers at her boyfriend's mother's home in Oakdale. She had used the computer there to check if there was a warrant out for her arrest.
Police arrested her, and she declined to speak with investigators.
If convicted of the child neglect and endangerment charges, Gysbers faces up to six years behind bars and thousands of dollars in fines.
Her bail was set as $30,000.