A Rock Springs woman is accused of leaving her baby alone in a parked car while she spent hours drinking at a local bar.
It was about 2:16 a.m. Saturday when “officers were in the area of a local bar on an unrelated call when they heard frantic yelling coming from the parking lot,” Rock Springs Police Department spokesperson Phylicia Lukacik says in a Monday report about the incident.
When officers responded, a witness ran to them reporting that “a woman had left a baby inside a parked vehicle,” the report says.
They found the infant alive, alone and strapped into a rear-facing car seat. The baby was taken into the custody of the Wyoming Department of Family Services.
“Officers were eventually able to reach the child’s mother and asked her to return to the scene,” Lukacik says in her report. “When she arrived, officers observed numerous signs of intoxication.”
While talking with police, the woman allegedly admitted to leaving her baby unattended while she went inside the nearby bar, the report says.
The report doesn’t say if the vehicle was locked or unlocked or the condition of the baby.
Left For Hours
While investigating, officers reviewed surveillance video from the bar, which showed the woman and another adult “arriving together and leaving the infant in the vehicle before entering the bar,” according to the report.
“The footage showed no one returning to check on the child until officers became involved,” the report adds.
Investigators determined the baby had been left unattended in the vehicle for several hours.
The mother was arrested on suspicion of abandoning or endangering children and booked into the Sweetwater County Detention Center.
While the report doesn’t identify the mother, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office shows a woman named Kaylie Jo Rowe, 31, was arrested Saturday and is being held in the jail on those same charges.
Rowe also is the only inmate listed with those charges.
“Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle is never safe,” Lukacik says in her report. “Children can quickly become victims of heat, cold, medical emergencies, or other dangers when left alone.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
