A 39-year-old woman in Oklahoma has been arrested on charges that she gave her 2-year-old daughter to a man who sold her drugs and the girl went missing more than two years ago.
Ashley Rowland was arrested last week and charged with child abandonment in connection with her daughter’s disappearance. According to KOTV, a CBS affiliate in Tulsa, the girl hasn’t been seen since 2022.
One news source, KOCO in Oklahoma City, said that in April 2023, agents from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services were supposed to take custody of the toddler but couldn’t find her.
The agents were able to find Rowland and talk to him at his home in Moore, Oklahoma, which is about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City.
They got in touch with Rowland, who supposedly told them that the girl was staying with her father in Georgia.
On the other hand, police said they later found out that Rowland was lying about where her daughter was and called the Moore Police Department.
In a later interview with police, Rowland is said to have admitted that she gave her daughter to someone named Carlos in April 2022. A source told KOCO that she also said she thought Carlos might be the girl’s biological father, but she didn’t know for sure.
A report from KOTV said that Rowland said she hadn’t seen the child since giving her to Carlos, who was selling her methamphetamine at the time. She also couldn’t say anything about the man except that she thought he was going to Mexico and didn’t have the child’s ID.
KOTV was told by police that the child is now 5 years old, but they don’t know if she is still in the country or even if she is alive or dead.
The police department told the station, “This is a very active case that we are working hard on.” “Every possible lead about where the child is is being looked into.” Please call the Moore Police Department if you know anything about this case.
Oklahoma DHS reportedly told KOCO that they couldn’t say anything about the specifics of the case but that the whole thing was “heartbreaking and unimaginable.”
Rowland is being held in the Oklahoma County Detention Center without having to post a $3,000 bond right now.
