On July 1st, 2024, a woman came across a young child wandering the streets with no adult in sight. The little boy was wearing only dirty pajamas and a soiled diaper, prompting immediate concern and a rapid response from deputies.

"There are two boys." "Yeah." "Yeah." "No, nobody found you."

"No, I've been there for over an hour." "Do you know where you found her at?" "By walking towards the street. I was out running and I noticed her and I was like, 'This does not look good.' and she um I asked her where her parents were and she said she didn't she clearly."

"Hello." "Your house you have a dog let's go this way." "I'm thinking so she was walking towards like the main road there." "She said that yellow car I mean but I don't know what she is she likes the car But nobody has come out and looked for her in the last hour."

"Okay. Well,." "Status check." "I think she's just going."

"She's just going around places." "Yeah, because when I tried to do the same thing, she had me over there and over here."

"I don't think she really knows. Go see if there's a car seat in that yellow car. Certainly from the looks of her, who knows if she even has a car seat 21 status check 211 104. And if there's a golf unit available, can they run by the district office and grab a uh child seat in B51 this way?"

"No. Well,." "So you found her." "I don't have anyone available in the area right now."



"I'll show you exactly where I found her." "26. There's no rush."

"And my daughter said that she saw her walking around like over there. What's next? What's next? Could you go to the district office and get a car seat for the 2-year-old and bring it to Delta 211 who's off clubhouse drive?"

"I saw her right by that Mustang." "So, was by the Mustang. Was she in the grass or in the roadway?"

"She was sitting Well, she saw me. She was in the road and then when she saw me, she ran and sat by the tire. And I kind of went and looked to see where she went, but I didn't see a parent." "And I walked."

"And you've had her for about an hour now." "Oh, I clearly Yeah. Longer than that. It's bad."

"Yeah, I've had her for a long time. Hey, which unit are you saying it over there?"

"I feel better. Well, what I'm going to do is uh I'm going to try and just make contact see if we can't find a parent real quick. If not, I need to get a written statement from you just where you found her. Just kind of describing it."

"Yeah."

"Um and then I'm going to call DCF real quick, too. So, you got you got a few minutes. I know you've been an hour. I hate to put you out like this, but help me out. Um if this child has been without care for an hour other than with being in your care um that's a problem."

"So." "Yeah, it clearly is." "Um yeah, I'm going to get her started on some statements." "Um."

"Um." "I got uh I think Spanelli's on his way with a baby." "I'm going to call DCF up. I think she says at least over an hour."

"Yeah." "So I'm going to take we're taking custody. I mean, I called you guys the first 911 call." "I'm going to pull my car up so we get the nice shade over here."

"9:16. It was the first call and I was there 10 minutes prior to that." "Okay. I'm going to get a statement from you and um we're going to take this child into custody and."

"Okay." "Hopefully, I can identify the parents and go from there." "I'll be right back."

"Oh, yeah. Who made the peanut butter sandwich? Did you make it?" "He's coming. This is That's."

"Is it mine?" "Mine." "You put her up front if you wanted." "That's mine."

"Yeah." "I don't know if it works with our seat belts." "She's in our custody. I'm going to have DCF meet us at the district office. right here."

"Right." "I appreciate you guys. If you guys will hang out until the." "Behavioral response unit comes, she'll."

"Go another car." "Do you know your mommy's name?" "Yes."

"What? What's mommy's name? What's mommy's name?"

"Pink. Your mommy's name is Pink. Yes."

"Okay. You just drink that water. We're going to go for a quick car ride. Okay. You good?"

"Sure." "Did you put Canon's uh little baby in the car? Yeah." "All right. Thanks."

"Thanks. Golf 23 tall type." "Golf 23." "1012 with that juvenile on clubhouse. We're 51 to the substation 65 starting mileage."

"102 203 102 203 51." "You okay? Yes." "Okay."

"Tell me your name again." "Teao." "Tao." "Teao is your name."

"Is it Taylor?" "Teao. Okay." "I'm okay."

"You're okay. we're going to get you changed. Okay. Are we keeping this kid regardless because the mom's getting 10:15 or what?"

"Should we go back with her?"

"I was going to say go run by my kid's daycare. It's right next to the substation. And go grab um ask them for one of diapers and uh grab like three wipes or something and let's change this girl because she's got a really full diaper and it's been a couple hours. A traffic jam. That's right."

"504 jam." "Yeah. All the cars." "Traffic jam."

"All the cars are in a traffic jam. That's right." "Look like my TV." "That's my TV today. This looks like your TV."

"Yes." "You have a TV? What do you like to watch?" "Monster trucks."

"You like to watch monster trucks?" "Yes." "That's cool." "I like monster trucks also."

"I like monster trucks, too." "Yeah, they're big." "They're very big." "Mhm."

"Yeah. Do you go to school somewhere?" "I go to school to the white car." "Oh, okay."

"To the police station." "The police station. Yeah, we're going to the police station right now to go wait on a friend. We're going to wait for a friend. Remember these stuff?"

"Here, I'll take your water. Let me see. I'll give it back to you. Okay."

"First, I want to change my diaper. Wet my diaper."

"Yep. we're going to change you in a second. Okay. I don't have any diapers yet. We're going to go get you some."

"You want to hold this water?"

"Yes. You know who's all over that water? What? Who's this? Do you know who that is?"

"What superhero that is?" "Delta 110 delta 111 status check." "Who what superhero is that?" "Copy. No check."

While one deputy transported the child to the FCSO district office. Another searched the neighborhood for any sign of a parent or guardian. After canvassing the area, officers eventually traced the child back to a nearby condo unit where they believed the caregiver might be How you doing, man? Sorry to bother you. Um,

"Did you lose a child? Did you?" "Did I? What?"

"Lose Do you have any children?" "She's 35." "Okay." "34."

"You have the red car down downstairs? Yeah." "With the car seats in it? Yeah, those are for my grandbabies."

"Okay. Do they live here or." "No, but now Okay. So, no, you're not missing any child children or anything."

"Okay. I just saw like we're we found a child." "Can't find where she belongs. So, I saw the car seats."

"Those are my granddaughters." "All right. Never mind. Thank you. Good luck."

"Thank you. here." "No,." "I thought it was the one that pulled it in."

"Okay. Yeah. Not yet."

"That's a shame, right? That's my grand Oh, that's your granddad. Okay. Yes. Hi."

"How are you?" "Oh, hey. How you doing?" "How you doing?"

"Hey, you. Are you okay? I'm good. What happened?"

"You probably wonder why I knocked on your door." "What happened?" "We found a kid, a child walking around." "Oh, the little boy."

"The little long hair is in here in the second floor. I saw him." "Where does she live?" "Yeah. And she live in that room."

"That one." "In that apartment." "That girl. The little girl."

"The girl."

"Yeah. It's boy girl. say because she's got a long hair. He got a long hair. Show me."

"Show me the lady. Let me go close this. And she went way down and she said this. And there."

"She says there for sure." "Sure. Let me go see the door. The girl."

"Where is?" "Oh, there's a door open." "Yeah, the door open. I saw I saw the boy coming here. Who you care about?"

"Okay. with the mama." "Can't tell the juvenile possibilities that." "56 club house 106."

"The little girl. Yeah." "Running around." "She was in here in the little ghetto."

"I'll check on all the way back there. All the way down. And she saw too the neighboring not the." "Sheriff's office."

"I see the boys." "Ma'am." "No." "Are you missing a child?"

"Where is he?" "He's sick. Okay." "He's been gone a couple hours."

"My son?" "Yeah. A little over an hour." "He knows how to unlock the door, but he never does it."

"Well, he was found walking by the road on the next park parking lot of a apartment complexes. Somebody found him. They're with him for about 25 to 30 minutes. Called us."

"Jesus Christ." "And now it's been." "Over an hour." "Yeah. Are you by yourself here?"

"Mhm. Is there any other children?" "No." "Okay."

"It's my only child. Um, he, like I said, he knows how to unlock this,." "But he never does it because why would you walk outside? I'm surprised he got through these stairs."

"Well, I'm, you know, I don't want to be like, you know, I don't want to beat you, you know, beat you up too bad, but I'm glad nothing else happened." "Yeah. No, this I this will drive me crazy while we're talking to you and all that stuff. I mean, they have chains that go higher."

"This has one and it um I have uh this part. I need to get this door part." "Well, I'm just saying there's other, you know, so um what's his name?" "Okay. Do you have an ID?"

"Mhm. Let me get." "Sleeping. I was just telling my mom how in the morning sometimes he won't wake me like up like it'll be like really early if he's been out there for hours."

"What time is it now?" "10:30." "What time usually wake up?"

"Uh if I have work like 7:30. Um but he'll wake up like at like 4:00 a.m. or something."

"Okay. and just come into here. And that's what that's why it's like this delta 2." "Um I ran a tag down there, the white car."

"Okay." "And I went to the I went to the residence where the white car came back and the lady's like blonde here. He lives up here. And when I came up here, the door was open. I knocked announced myself she was uh sleeping in the back."

"She been ready." "Um what's your child's name?" "Can you spell that for me?" "Delta 1101. His dad is he was having one a couple years ago and um yeah it's me and him and then my mom helps me with him sometimes while I work during the day."

"Okay. So." "Yes,."

Inside the condo, the officers took note of several factors that could lead to a potential arrest. Firstly, no childproof locks were on the door despite Isabella's knowledge that her son had previously tried the doors. A nearby stairway and canal posed serious hazards for the kid. In addition to all this, officers also noticed open containers of alcohol, trash, food scattered, and in the child's room, no clothes for him were observed. All right.

32. All right.

"So, we're go to this car over here." "There's nothing on you, right? Because anything I don't find, if they find it at the jail, it's going to be an additional felony charge. Okay."

"Okay. But I don't do anything." "That's okay. Because you're getting ready to go back in the backseat of my uh patrol car. I got to ask."

"I just fell asleep. I just slept." "Okay. Um again, no on anything like that."

"No, I don't have anything. All right. If they do find it at the jail with their scanners, it's a felony charge. So, now's the time to tell."

"I don't do anything. I don't do anything."

"All right. Um, have you taken any alcohol in the last 24 hours? No, because I don't want you need to go to the hospital. Okay."

"No." "All right. Are you not pregnant or anything like that?" "I'm not pregnant. No."

"Okay. All right. I'm just asking. Hang tight for me one second. All right."

"You just want to take a seat back there."

Isabella was arrested and later she tested positive for methadone, alcohol, and THC.

"A child charge." "It's a charge. I want to be frank with you. Okay. Um, I don't think you have any previous history of this."

"No, I just fell asleep."

"Um, like you're going to work with DCF for a parenting plan. State attorney is going to review everything. The judge has to review everything. So again, you're innocent till proven guilty. Um,."

"And then if If it is proven guilty that I fell asleep." "Even if it's proven guilty, doesn't mean you're to be denied your child or anything like that. Um,." "What about my business? When people look me up, they're going to see I'm a I'm a child."

"That's how I feed my child. The doors were locked." "Again, you're you're aware that your child's been opening."

"212 status check. Um, you live near a water hazard. You live on a second-story fall hazard and Clubhouse Drive is right there. Um, and your kids in diapers, too. Like I got a four-year-old and I don't know what it is."

"And." "My son's three about to be three."

"Um, there's my four-wheel right there. I don't know what it is. I wake up like he's out of diapers. I mean, he's fully functioning, go to the bathroom on his own, everything."

"I still like wake up." "I would have." "Every four hours or so." "Yeah."

"And I just check on him because I don't know. Maybe because I do this job, but." "Um."

"I mean, we're in like a an apartment the size of like most people's room. Like it's like how how much could you really do? I thought it you know, without me." "Lucky that nothing happened to your child."

"I know. But I really do. I know." "Because if you would have fallen in that water and having been to drownings and."

"His father was hit and run when he was a year old and that could have happened too." "So again, I'm not going for the whatifs. I'm just looking at 8 and 1/2 hours and with the hazards, um, you know, I think there should have been a little bit more diligence there. Okay. I just."

"You could disagree with me."

"Yeah, I know. I just When you're exhausted, you don't really wake up in the middle of the sleep. And if you don't, it's not really your fault if you don't wake up in the middle of the sleep. The only thing that I could have really done differently, I can't help how hard I sleep, would have been to put like that door lock and possibly risk losing my apartment uh by putting another door lock up high. I can't help how hard I sleep."

"Well, and if you're taking kratom or supplements like that that uh get that, you know, mimic the effects of like a depressant or I think it is a depressant. Um, you know, those are things that you got to account for. You're going to be impaired by any kind of substance. You know, you got to if it's going to make you sleep, you need to make sure that somebody's there to take care of your child."

"It doesn't make you sleep. It usually does the opposite for me. That's why I take it so that I have the energy to go to the gym." "I do not know your specific reaction to kratom, but I know how it is often used."

"I take it so that I don't have to take prescription medication because I was diagnosed with like ADHD and stuff like that. I got you. And my genuine hope is that from here forward you can get your kid back." "I doubt it. Once they're in the system, I really doubt it."

"I'm going to try. I've been frustrated with the system before." "I do not think this means you are never going to see your kid again."

"I think I'll see him. I don't think that I'll get him back. And I don't think I'll be able to afford to anyways because I think that this is going to ruin my business and I won't be able to afford to get him back." "Do you want us to take a message or you want to call in and talk to him?"

"So right now it's not a removal." "Like him." "The what?" "Right now he is not being removed from me?"

"They're just doing a parenting plan." "Okay. And my understanding of it is like if you when you bond out, bail out, regardless of whatever happens at this trial, you you still have the right as a mother to your child. Okay? State hasn't taken that away right now or anything like that."

"Okay?" "When they talk about a parenting plan, that's just where the state works with you and with another caretaker. Um it's a parenting plan. Like your child's going to have there's a plan in place as far as the care and welfare of your child."

Isabella was arrested and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, prompting DCF to take custody of the child. She is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.