King County Prosecutors say that for five days Qiara Na Te Dennis left her two young children alone in a dirty apartment without food or water.
On Tuesday, prosecutors charged the 23-year-old Auburn woman with two counts of second-degree abandonment of a dependent person.
Her arraignment is July 2.
Neighbors on June 14 reported to police a 3-year-old girl crying inside a unit in the Auburn Square Apartments at 3734 H St. NE. as she pushed against the screen of a second-story window and asked for her mother,
The building manager opened the door for officers who found a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy. According to the Auburn Police Department’s affidavit of probable cause, which is the basis for the charges, “officers noted that when they entered the unit, there was an immediate and overpowering smell of human feces and rotting food coming from inside the units. … (The boy) was not wearing any clothes, was crying, had a red rash on his genitals and was covered with feces on his buttocks, lower back and in his hair. (The girl) was wearing soiled pants and a food-stained shirt,” and was not wearing shoes or socks.
According to the affidavit, there was no water for the children, and the only food was a bag of grapes left on a bed. According to the affidavit, there were piles of vomit and feces on the floor, and police had to bathe each child twice and change the bath water twice before handing them over to Child Protective Services.
According to charging papers, officers in Cowlitz County had arrested Dennis five days earlier on suspicion of driving on a suspended license, but she allegedly failed to tell anybody that she had left her children at home alone, “thus depriving them of food, water, the ability to toilet, and, of course, subjecting them to the inherent danger of a lack of supervision for five days.”
Dennis had four warrants out for her arrest when police took her into custody.
“Qiara recklessly abandoned her children, and as a result of being abandoned, she created an environment where the children suffered substantial bodily harm and an environment where they risked imminent death if there was no intervention,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
