A Florida mother and her boyfriend have been arrested after they left her two toddlers home alone for eight hours and returned to find one of them dead.
Donrea McLaughlin, 22, reportedly told investigators that she had taken a nap on September 1 and that when her boyfriend, 26-year-old Sean Lee II, awakened her several hours later, her 3-year-old daughter was unresponsive, the Gainesville Police Department said. The little girl was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators later learned that McLaughlin and Lee had gone to work that morning and left the victim and her sibling home alone for about eight hours. They did not check on the children during that time.
“Further investigation revealed a history of prolonged abuse and neglect, which contributed to the death of one sibling and the injury to the other,” police said. “The surviving sibling received treatment at a nearby hospital, on the night of the reported incident.”
While the investigation was ongoing, McLaughlin and Lee fled their Gainesville apartment for Atlanta, Georgia, where they lived before moving to Florida.
Gainesville Police, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and the US Marshals Service coordinated the couple’s arrest in Atlanta. Fulton County Jail records in Georgia show that McLaughlin and Lee were booked on fugitive warrants.
McLaughlin and Lee are awaiting extradition to face charges of murder and two counts each of aggravated child abuse and child neglect. Their bonds have been set at $4.5 million each.
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[Featured image: Sean Lee and Donrea McLaughlin/Gainesville Police Department]
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