SALT LAKE CITY — A Washington state woman accused of leaving her toddler alone in a Murray hotel room for several hours in October is facing charges.
Raquesha T. Stark, 25, of Kent, Washington, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with child abandonment, a third-degree felony; and child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.
On Oct. 3, Murray police responded to a report of a child who was alone in a hotel room and crying, according to charging documents. The 3-year-old girl was found in an empty bathtub with the lights off.
One hotel guest told officers he heard the child crying at 4 p.m. before he took a nap, and she was still crying more than an hour later when he woke up, the charges state.
The Division of Child and Family Services was called to take custody of the child, according to the charges.
At 7:45 p.m., Stark and a 14-year-old girl returned to the hotel. Stark claimed she had only been gone 30 minutes, the charges state.
But the officer told her that police had been at the hotel for nearly two hours and based on information from other hotel guests, “the toddler had been left alone for close to four hours,” according to charging documents.
“Stark then claimed they had gotten lost while searching for a McDonald’s and didn’t know how long they had been gone,” the charges state.
Police informed Stark there were several McDonald’s all within one or two miles from the hotel. Prosecutors also noted in charging documents that Stark had an iPhone in her possession at the time of her arrest and a GPS device in her car, which she claimed wasn’t working, according to charging documents.