SALT LAKE CITY — A Poplar Grove woman has been charged with child abandonment after police say she left her 13-month-old son with another woman and never checked on him again.
The toddler was found alone in an apartment near 750 S. 900 West on Nov. 15 by his mother's landlord, who heard him crying and entered the apartment to investigate, according to charges filed Monday.
Salt Lake police said the apartment had food and garbage in every room and "the conditions inside the residence were not sanitary or safe for a child." Police were there for hours, but no one arrived to claim the boy.
During an interview in January, Jacqueline Lyneetra Vides told police she left her son in another woman's care on Nov. 13, two days before he was found. Vides, 28, said she called the woman the next day and was told he had been dropped off at Vides' apartment with her boyfriend.
Vides, who is incarcerated at the Utah State Prison on a probation violation, told police she never tried to locate her son after the Nov. 13 phone call with the woman, despite being arrested Dec. 11 on unrelated charges, the court documents state.
Salt Lake County deputy district attorney Cristina Ortega said the delay in filing charges against Vides was prompted by a desire to conduct a complete investigation. She said prosecutors are still considering charges against Vides' boyfriend.
Police have never located the woman Vides said she left her son with. Ortega said the last she knew, the boy was in the custody of the state Division of Child and Family Services.
Vides, who also uses the last name White, is charged with child abandonment, a third-degree felony.
— Geoff Liesik