Warren woman faces child-endangering charge

Staff report

WARREN

A Peace Avenue Northwest woman says she accidentally left her 5-year-old daughter in a van in the parking lot of her apartment complex early Monday.

Elisa R. Elliott, 29, of Peace Avenue, said she returned home at 3 a.m. Monday from a trip to Columbus with her six children and her friend.

“She stated she thought all the kids got out of the car last night when they got home,” a police report says.

She was jailed early Monday but not formally charged in Warren Municipal Court as of Monday afternoon,

Her friend said she also thought all the kids had gone into the apartment.

“Elliott stated that from being tired and worrying about carrying the baby [into the apartment], she just didn’t get a chance to check the car one last time,” the police report says.

A neighbor called 911 about 8 a.m., saying she heard loud yelling coming from outside of her Warren Heights apartment and saw the girl pounding on an apartment door.

The girl told the woman she was cold and “trying to find her mom” but didn’t know where she lived. The woman took the girl inside the woman’s apartment and gave her a blanket. The girl was wearing a shirt, pants and a jacket, and the low temperature was 9 degrees, police said.

When a police officer arrived, the girl gave him her mother’s name and said she woke up in the van and had slept in it last night. She was alone in the van when she woke up.

The officer took the child to the apartment complex’s office and learned Elliott had just moved in last week. Office staff gave the officer the address.

The officer knocked on the girl’s apartment door for about five minutes, but no one answered. The officer then asked the girl what vehicle she had been sleeping in. The girl pointed to a van.

Then the girl pointed to a woman who was walking out of an apartment and said that was her mother. The officer let the girl out of his cruiser and she ran into her apartment, where her mother had opened the apartment door.

Elliott told the officer she, the kids and her friend left for Columbus at 11 a.m. Sunday. Police said they would contact Trumbull County Children Services regarding the incident.