Published: Saturday, April 7, 2007
Mother left two children alone while she went to work, police say
Neighbors heard the 5-year-old and 20-month-old calling for help.
CINCINNATI (AP) — A woman accused of locking her 5-year-old son in a closet and leaving her toddler in a portable crib while she went to work has been indicted on charges of child endangering and kidnapping.
Beverly Fears, 24, of Cincinnati, has been indicted on 12 counts of endangering children and two counts of kidnapping, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said in a statement Friday. The kidnapping counts charge that Fears knowingly restrained her sons under circumstances that either created a substantial risk of serious physical harm or caused physical harm to them.
Deters said Fears left her apartment around 11 p.m. March 28 to go to work. Neighbors called police after hearing loud noises when the older boy began calling for help and pounding on the closet, according to the prosecutor.
When police arrived at the apartment, they said they found the older boy in the closet amid feces and urine and dressed only in his underwear. The child also had multiple bruises, while the 20-month-old boy was clad only in a diaper and had diaper rash so severe that his skin was peeling, the prosecutor said.
Authorities said both children were malnourished.
Bond was set at $500,000 for Fears, who was being held in the Hamilton County jail. If convicted on all counts, she could face up to 107 years in prison, Deters said.
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