VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A mom is now facing child neglect charges after authorities say she abandoned her child at a stranger’s house Sunday.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says Melissa Kelley approached a home on Sedgefield Avenue in Deltona Sunday night and rang the doorbell multiple times. A woman opened the door and was greeted by Kelley with her 3-month-old son in a car seat, according to a sheriff’s office report.
[TRENDING: ‘I took LSD:’ Disney guest accused in attack | What does vaccine effectiveness mean? | News 6 anchors share drama stories]
“She knew my name and everything,” the woman said on a 911 call. “She said 'your daughter is dating his daddy.”
The woman says on the call that Kelley pushed the baby in the door before leaving him in the house on the ground. According to a report, Kelley told the woman not to touch the infant as he was infected with scabies. Kelley said she could no longer care for the child and that his dad would get him.
Kelley then left without leaving medicine or instructions for the care of the child.
“Some girl just came up and left her baby at my door,” the woman said in the 911 call.
[911 CALL: Mom leaves baby on stranger’s doorstep]
The woman told authorities the baby was abandoned with a soiled diaper, half a can of powdered baby formula and an empty baby bottle along with two soiled baby towels, the incident report reads.
The woman says she tried to get in contact with the baby’s father, who authorities identified as 28-year-old Clayton Zinck. After not answering multiple calls, the woman called Zinck’s parents who told her they would not wake up Zinck to inform him of the incident nor were they going to take the child, sheriff’s office documents read.
Lake County Sheriff deputies later found Kelley at the intersection of Lightfoot Road and State Road 40 in Astor where they took her into custody.
Kelley is now facing charges of unlawful desertion of a child and neglect of a child. She bonded out of the Lake County Jail Tuesday. The infant is now under the custody of the Department of Children and Families.