Florida mother arrested after leaving 4 children alone on 3-day Bahamas cruise

A North Miami Beach mother faces four child neglect charges after police found her children, including a 2-month-old, home alone while she was on a Carnival cruise.

Florida mother charged with neglect after infant left alone during Bahamas cruise

A 29-year-old Florida woman returned from a three-day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas in handcuffs after police discovered she had left her four children — including a 2-month-old baby — unsupervised in their North Miami Beach apartment, abc3340.com reports.

Nathalie Belizaire faces four counts of child neglect following the September 26 incident, when law enforcement found all four children without adult supervision inside the family home.

The case came to light after the father of Belizaire's youngest child spotted what appeared to be a Carnival Cruise Line ticket on her social media. When he contacted Belizaire, she told him the children would be staying with their great-grandmother during her absence. The father later drove to the apartment, noticed the television was on through the blinds and could hear the children talking inside. He called 911.

North Miami Beach police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to the scene. Firefighters forced entry into the apartment over concerns for the children's welfare and found all four huddled together in a bathroom. The youngest was two months old; another child was two years old.

Investigators subsequently spoke with the great-grandmother, who confirmed that Belizaire had told her she would drop off the children before leaving town — but never did. Belizaire's brother also told authorities he had received a text message asking him to check on the children.

On Monday, September 28, North Miami Beach police and a Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office detective traveled to the Port of Miami. U.S. Customs and Border Protection took Belizaire into custody as she disembarked from the Carnival Conquest, and she was then transferred to North Miami Beach police.

Belizaire declined to make a statement and invoked her right to remain silent, according to the arrest report. She was held on a $10,000 bond. Her public defender filed a written plea of not guilty in Miami-Dade Circuit Court the following day.

Source: Google News BS — Crime