A Texas woman was recently arrested after intentionally leaving her 16-month-old child alone to travel out of town to see a man she met on a dating app, according to Lone Star State law enforcement.
Reese Louise Myers, 25, is charged with one count of abandoning or endangering a child, according to the Killeen Police Department.
The incident occurred in the middle of the summer, and the defendant was apprehended earlier this month near the small city of Barstow in Southern California’s Inland Empire region on a fugitive warrant. She just got back to Texas this week.
Late in the morning on July 28, police were called to an apartment on West Hallmark Avenue in Killeen, a large city about 70 miles north of Austin, to check on the welfare of a child, according to a Killeen Police Department spokesperson.
“Officers were told that a child was hanging out near a broken window and that an aggressive dog was trying to attack the child,” the department said in a statement.
When the officers arrived, they discovered a child protruding from a window that had been repaired with plexiglass sheeting and cardboard. It was not shattered.
The child was discovered alone inside the apartment, wearing a T-shirt “and nothing else,” according to police. The toddler also allegedly had feces on their skin and visible diaper rash.
“Officers conducted a sweep of the apartment and discovered that the child was alone, with the exception of two dogs,” according to the police department’s search report. “Officers contacted the mother of the child, who advised that she was currently in San Antonio and had been there since the day before.”
San Antonio is roughly 160 miles south-southwest of Killeen.
The child was taken to a nearby hospital before being placed in the care of the state’s Child Protection Services.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Waco-based Fox affiliate KWKT, Myers allegedly told police that she had traveled to the Alamo City to visit a man she met on Hinge.
The mother allegedly told police that she had left her child with a babysitter she met on Facebook. So police investigated to see what the alleged babysitter had to say about the incident.
“Officers then made contact with the babysitter, who advised she had previously babysat for the suspect last year in December and hadn’t spoken to her since,” according to the investigation. “She showed officers her Facebook messages and there were no messages after December 2023.”
Law enforcement also stated that the house was designed and set up in such a way that Myers intended to leave her son alone.
Precautions are said to have been obvious, with most doors closed, a baby gate blocking the kitchen area, the deadbolt on the door locked, and every other window locked and shut – with the exception of the seemingly makeshift-closed one the boy was seen hanging from.
“Officers told the mother to return to Killeen,” according to the police department.
That request was allegedly not fulfilled. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office arrested Myers on November 5.
According to arrest records in California, the defendant was apprehended somewhere on the sprawling Fort Irwin Army Base, which is approximately 1,365 miles from Killeen.
Myers was released from custody in California on Tuesday and then arrested by the Killeen Police Department the same day.
