Police: Mom left 3-year-old home alone
Douglas Walker
dwalker@muncie.gannett.com
Police say a Muncie mother repeatedly left her 3-year-old daughter home alone.
The girl was outside Wednesday night, an officer wrote, and said she didn't know where her mom was.
Neighbors said they were aware of at least three instances when the child was left unsupervised.
MUNCIE – Authorities say a Muncie woman repeatedly left her 3-year-old daughter home alone.
Tishayla Rene "Shay" Joyce, 28, was arrested Wednesday evening on a preliminary charge of neglect of a dependent, a Level 6 felony carrying up to three years in prison.
A city police officer reported he was called to Joyce's apartment, in the 900 block of West Main Street, shortly after 6 p.m. and found the child sitting on the front porch.
"She advised her mommy was gone," he wrote in an affidavit.
Two neighbors said Joyce had left her home on a moped about 4:30 p.m. They also said the mother routinely propped a charcoal grill against her front door in a bid to keep the child inside.
In early June, the witnesses said, the child came to their front door, telling them she couldn't find her mother and was scared.
On Tuesday night, they said, they found the child, alone, on her front step about 8:30 p.m.
Joyce arrived home about 9:30 p.m., asked her neighbors to watch the girl until 11 p.m., and left again, they said. The mother did not return home that night until 2:30 a.m.
Child Protective Services officials were called to the scene Wednesday night.
The child's great-grandfather arrived and said "he already had custody of one of Joyce's children," the affidavit said. He declined to take the 3-year-old to his home. Authorities told him they could not allow him to place the child in the custody of still another relative.
Joyce — who returned home on her moped after being contacted by neighbors — maintained her cousin was supposed to be babysitting.
She insisted she never left her child alone.
The Muncie woman — who already faced charges of intimidation and false informing, both filed last year in Muncie City Court — was being held in the Delaware County jail on Thursday under a $5,000 bond.
According to court records, she has been convicted of possession of cocaine, intimidation, false informing, conversion, driving while intoxicated and public intoxication.
Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.