Brevard Sheriff’s Fugitive Unit Arrests Patricia Ann Childress at Melbourne Hotel, Charged With Aggravated Child Abuse

Was also charged with Aggravated Child Abuse for maliciously punishing her child by locking her in the closet for extended periods of time

SHERIFF IVEY: If you lock your two-year-old child in a closet we are going to lock you in a cell.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – There are some things in this world that I will never understand and then there are some things in this world that just tick me off and one of those happened this past week when Agents from our Fugitive Unit arrested Patricia Ann Childress at a local hotel in Melbourne on an active warrant for Child Neglect.

As if being arrested for having committed child neglect is not bad enough, what our Agents found inside the hotel room was even more disgusting and concerning, as while arresting Childress they discovered that she had locked her two-year-old child in a closet for hours because she was frustrated with her.

The incident was discovered after intelligence developed by our Agents indicated that Childress who was wanted on a warrant for child neglect was residing at the location with a second wanted subject.

Once Childress was in custody our Agents conducted a search of the room in an effort to locate the second wanted person and that’s when they found the two-year-old alone in the closet.

The closet was completely dark and was barricaded shut from the outside with numerous items that prevented the door from being opened by the child.

The two-year-old had dried food on her face and hair and was only wearing a shirt with no pants and a diaper, that was completely soiled with urine and feces. The closet had no lights, no toys, no food, no water and only contained a pillow and a blanket.

When confronted about the incident Childress first tried to tell the Agents the child wanted to be in the closet, but later admitted to locking the child in the closet overnight because she was frustrated with dealing with the child.

Further evidence developed at the scene by an underage witness indicated that the two-year-old is repeatedly locked in the closet whenever she acts up and that the mom only lets her out if the cops are coming.

Childress was arrested by our Agents on the warrant for child neglect and also an additional charge of Aggravated Child Abuse for maliciously punishing her child by locking her in the closet for extended periods of time.

Sadly, by law, the bond for the Aggravated Child Abuse charge could only be set at $5,000 but thankfully our team arrested the perpetrator and worked with DCF to make certain the children are now in a safe environment.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why our Criminal Justice system allows for such low bonds on such disgusting crimes.

Please join me in thanking our Fugitive Agents for rescuing these kids from this extremely impacting environment and for locking the perpetrator in a cell.

– Sheriff Wayne Ivey

Similar Stories