A Missouri mother, 23, is being charged with a major crime because she is said to have left her 4-month-old daughter home alone for an unknown amount of time so she could “go score.” Kaitlyn Maire Estes was arrested earlier this month and charged with one count of first-degree endangering the safety of a child and one count of first-degree abandoning a child. Law & Crime looked at court records and found these charges to be true.
A probable cause affidavit says that at 11:45 a.m. on October 2, 2024, an investigator from the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services went to Estes’ home in the 3200 block of S. Grand Avenue to follow up on an earlier probe.
When the detective got to the house, she knocked on the door several times and said she could hear a baby crying inside. The inspector kept knocking for about 45 minutes even though he knew Estes had a baby. Finally, he gave up and called the police.
When the police arrived at the house, they saw that Estes’ car wasn’t there.
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The cops asked the property manager to let them into the house so they could check on the crying baby since the front door was locked from the inside.
“When the police went inside, they found a four-month-old girl in the bedroom.” “The child was stuck between the bed mattress for an adult and the wall,” the cops said in the document. “Someone had pulled a blanket over the baby’s face.” The baby was taken off the bed by police.
As they did this, they saw that her diaper was very dirty and drooping. The baby was crying and looked like it was upset. It was also seen that the face had bruises. The house did not have any other people in it.
The cops said they found the baby and a note written by hand that was “stuck to the wall of the bedroom.” The note said, “Went to go score be right back.”
Estes could not be found by the police, so the child was taken to the Children’s Center and given a CARE check. During the exam, the doctors saw bruises on the child’s lips and the left side of her face. They also saw dermatitis and skin breakdown from the dirty diaper she had been wearing.
Three days later, Estes was caught and put in jail. After she was charged, the judge set her bond at $5,000. As of Tuesday morning, she was still being held at the Newton County Jail, according to reports. She has to go to court on Tuesday afternoon for a hearing to lower her bond.