WINNIPEG – Stunned neighbours of a mom who allegedly abandoned her children for hours in a locked room say they saw her as a caring and nurturing mother.
Police said they found the three young children locked in a room, crying for help, while their mother was out for the night.
The three children are now safe, but neighbours are shocked.
In pictures, the mother smiles as she looks down at her baby boy. Global News cannot identify her to protect her children.
“She seemed like a single mom,” said neighbour Crystal Nowakowski. “I’d see her out in the summer in the front. I thought she was responsible.”
Police say the 24-year old mother went out for the night at around midnight Thursday, leaving her children, a two-year-old boy and three- and four-year-old girls, barricaded in a room.
“My partner was taking out the garbage and he heard kids crying,” said a neighbour who didn’t want to be identified.
When police forced their way in, the children were found locked in a room, wearing only diapers and surrounded by filth.
“There was evidence of bedbugs, there was evidence of hoarding, there was garbage, dog and cat feces, the residence was again in deplorable condition,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen of the Winnipeg Police Service.
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The mother returned home five hours after police arrived. She’s now charged with failing to provide the necessities of life, forcible confinement and cruelty to animals. The children are with Child and Family Services and the two dogs and three cats were removed by the city’s animal services department.
The mother has no prior criminal record.
“Kind of shocked that any parent can leave their kid like that — it’s disturbing,” said Neil, a neighbour who didn’t want to give his last name.
Neighbours said they’ve heard cries coming from the home several times but didn’t think anything of it, and they had no reason to believe the children were being neglected.
“She seemed like a good mom,” said neighbour Grace Caterer. “She’d always put them in the car, she’d buckle them in, they were always in car seats.”
The house was so disgusting it can’t be lived in, police said.
“No animal, no child, no human should be living in this type of condition,” said Michalyshen.
The woman was released on a promise to appear in court.
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