ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – An Abilene mother was arrested after she left her autistic, blind daughter and another child alone in a feces-covered home while she went to the bar, entrusting a hallucinating neighbor to check in on them.
Cassandra Lima, 31, was arrested for Abandoning/Endangering a Child after police responded to a call at her neighbor’s house early Tuesday morning.
Officers were investigating a reported prowler on the 2000 block of N 18th Street when they heard, “a loud audible scream that sounded like a child and banging noise consistent with someone hitting something,” according to a police report.
They were able to trace the noise to a house down the street, and the report reveals that when they began investigating, they found a small, naked child lying in the fetal position on the floor of an empty, feces-covered room.
Upon entering the home, a second child was found sleeping on the couch but no adult was home.
Police located Lima at a bar in town after she was identified as the children’s mother.
When she was brought back to her house, she told investigators she entrusted her neighbor to check on the children while she was gone.
The neighbor, who never appeared in the two hours police were at Lima’s home, showed up when she was back at the residence.
Officers say, “he appeared to be mentally unstable and was hallucinating and thought that people were in the trees and he was not fit to be watching the children.”
Lima also admitted the young girl they found lying in the fetal position is autistic and blind. She had been hitting her head on the wall loudly enough for the noise to be heard three houses down.
The children have been released into the care of Child Protective Services, and Lima remains held in jail on a $25,000 bond.
BigCountryHomepage will update this article once additional information is released.
