Insets, left to right: Carey Herring, Angela Herring (Shreveport Police Department). Background: The Royal Inn in the 1900 block of N. Market Street in Shreveport, La. (KTAL/YouTube).
A father and mother in Louisiana are facing criminal charges for allegedly abandoning their 15-year-old daughter in the city of Shreveport, where cops found her last week “alone in a filthy hotel room” and “surviving on her own,” according to police officials.
When officers found the teenage victim last Wednesday, she was allegedly the size of a 10-year-old after being ditched by her parents, Carey Herring, 52, and Angela Herring, 50, for two weeks in late March, according to local NBC affiliate KTAL. She was at the hotel where the Herrings left her for at least two weeks in “deplorable” conditions with no supervision or showers, cops say.
“She told our officers her mother left over a week ago saying, ‘I love you, be back soon,”” the Shreveport Police Department alleged in a Monday press release. “She hadn’t showered in 14 days,” the release said. “She apologized for the smell. She’s been surviving on her own. And she hasn’t been to school in three years.”
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Police say they responded to the Royal Inn in the 1900 block of N. Market Street after being contacted by the SPD’s Youth Services Bureau. When officers arrived at the hotel, they found the teen alone and spoke to her about what was going on. She said she was able to find food on her own and that her father was banned from the hotel for unknown reasons, which staff said was true.
“The room was a mess and she had visibly been there for an extended amount of time without any supervision,” SPD Cpl. Chris Bordelon told KTAL. “She was able to send a text message from Wi-Fi when she left the hotel room and had corresponded with her mom one time in that past week. The mom claimed that she had a flat tire and was in Texas.”
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Child Protective Services was immediately notified about the child’s situation and the girl is now in its custody. Her parents are charged with improper supervision of a juvenile and criminal neglect of family. They were being held Monday at the Caddo Correctional Center in Shreveport.
“A situation like this, this child has obviously had a rough upbringing, doesn’t really understand what’s going on, doesn’t understand the circumstances that she’s having to live in and can’t even comprehend how difficult her life is,” Bordelon said. “So we want to do what we can to get her the help so that she can grow up and try to outrun her past.”
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