Crime & Safety

Report: Toddlers Locked in Bedroom For More Than Eight Hours

An Acworth woman has been charged with cruelty to children for leaving her two children home alone for more than eight hours.

An Acworth mother has been charged with two counts of cruelty to children after two toddlers were found locked inside an apartment unit for more than eight hours, according to the Cherokee Sheriff's Office.

Angel Henderson, 22, was arrested Wednesday evening after deputies responded to a call in reference to possible child neglect at the Waldan Pond Apartments on Bells Ferry Road. 

Deputies at around 7:30 p.m. arrived on the scene and met with a maintenance worker who was making the rounds in the complex looking for the source of a water leak.

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The worker told deputies he responded to a call from a unit in which a person reported a water leak in the ceiling. He went upstairs to another unit and found two boys, ages 2 and 3, locked in the bedroom of an apartment unit, said Cherokee Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lt. Jay Baker. 

No adult was inside the unit with the children, who were discovered playing in a bathroom sink, which was determined to be the source of the leak. 

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"The children were unclothed and conditions in the room were not sanitary," Baker said.

According to the incident report, the maintenance worker noted the bathroom sink overflowed, and the carpet in the room was soaked with water. Inside the bedroom, human waste from a diaper was found smeared on the floor and closet door. 

The deputy responding to the call also noted the bedroom door was turned backwards — with the lock facing outside — "as if someone did it to be able to lock them inside their room," he wrote in the report.

Henderson arrived at the unit around 8 p.m. and initially told deputies she was only gone for two hours. However, they later determined she'd been away from the unit since around 11 a.m. Wednesday, Baker said.  

Henderson is behind bars at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center with a $44,400 bond.

Both boys were taken into custody by the Cherokee Division of Family and Children Services. 


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