Florida police arrested and charged a woman after she allegedly locked her young daughter with severe autism in a cage indoors in Palm Bay, CBS Miami reported.
Melissa Doss, 42, was arrested this weekend after a neighbor rung the police to report that a young girl had climbed over a fence and was in her backyard, according to CBS Miami.
Doss informed the police that she was asleep and thus wasn’t aware of her daughter’s escape from home, the Miami Herald reported.
The investigators also established that Doss house had a homemade cage assembled using metal and wood in which the girl used to sleep, the same outlet reported. (RELATED: Woman Arrested After Yelling Anti-Asian Slur To Undercover NYPD Officer)
A Palm Bay mother who told police she was at ‘the end of her rope,’ faces charges that she kept her autistic daughter in a wooden-and-metal frame cage with just a blanket and pillow. Social workers have removed the child and two siblings from the home. https://t.co/1Meykn80zA
— Florida Today (@Florida_Today) July 27, 2021
The woman told the police that she locks the girl in the cage at night to keep her from leaving the house, Newsweek reported.
The arrest report also said that the girl usually screams during morning hours until she is set free from the cage, according to the same outlet.
The police also denounced the generally poor condition of the house, notably feces and urine smell, garbage all over the place, various insects including flies and spiders, a faulty ceiling board, and bathrooms that aren’t functional, according to CBS Miami.
The case was forwarded to the Department of Children and Families in Florida, and the woman was on Monday slammed with charges of crimes of aggravated child abuse and child neglect, Newsweek reported.