A woman was arrested after authorities found her 7-year-old daughter dead inside their Texas home, according to the Bay City Police Department.
Lauren Kay Dean, 26, was arrested on three separate second-degree felony charges: abandonment, endangering a child, and imminent danger bodily injury, police said in a release. She was taken to the Matagorda County Jail.
Police found the deceased girl, who had been bed-ridden due to medical conditions, while conducting a welfare check at the home around 2:36 p.m. on Jan. 31. Two other children were also in the home, a 5-year-old and 3-month-old, along with Dean, the mother of all three. The two children were removed from the residence, an apartment on 2200 Block of Bordeaux in Bay City, after Dean was arrested.
Police detectives and crime scene investigators gathered evidence at the scene and an investigation is currently underway. It’s unclear how long the girl has been dead.
Neighbors were shocked to learn of the girl’s death, reported KTRK.
“There was all kinds of, you know, the police tape and police over there and people walking around and everything,” a woman told the station. Another neighbor, a parent of a 7-year-old child, said the situation was “sad.”
“That’s really sad because I have a 7-year-old right there so I wonder how that happened without anybody knowing, and especially if she had other kids too,” the neighbor said.
Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact police.
