A Florida couple is facing charges after they allegedly forgot one of their eight children at a public park.
It started on Friday when parents Jolanda Larose Alexandre and Makenson Alexandre headed to Haverhill Park in Palm Beach with all their kids, according to the Palm Beach Post.
The family stayed for about an hour before the mom loaded them back into their SUV and headed home. Only, the parents accidentally left behind a 2-year-old girl.
She was found “wandering alone” by two women about an hour later, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The child appeared to be in good health and was wearing a pink shirt and tutu.
The women called authorities who worked to determine who the girl’s parents were. They posted photos of the child on social media and brought in search and rescue dogs, according to the Sentinel.
Meanwhile, the child’s parents had returned home and gone to bed.
They didn’t realize that the toddler was not in the home and did not check on their children before going to sleep, the mom admitted to police.
It wasn’t until the following morning around 9 a.m. that the mother noticed her child wasn’t at the home.
She took her kids back to the park and “began looking frantically for” the little girl, according to the police report.
#UPDATE Saturday, March 23, 2019, at 11:40 am, the parents of the found little girl reported their daughter missing. …
Posted by PBSO – Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday, March 24, 2019
The mother contacted police to report the 2-year-old missing around noon.
The police report states that the mom “was crying and shaking and said she cannot believe that she left (name withheld) in the park. She said this is the first time anything like this has happened and her children have never gone missing before.”
She said that she usually checks on her children before bed but didn’t on Friday night.
Both parents have since been arrested and charged with neglect. The Florida Department of Children and Families removed their seven other children from their home.
The couple was released on $3,000 bail each.