A Texas mother who had left her child home alone so she could go on a date with a man she met on a dating app was arrested in California earlier this month, a fugitive from justice charged with unthinkable neglect.
The incident traces back to July 28, when police in Killeen, Texas, received an alarming call from a witness who had seen a toddler “hanging out near a broken window” in an apartment after an aggressive dog tried to attack him.
The 16-month-old boy was still dangling out the window, shoddily repaired with plexiglass sheeting and cardboard when officers arrived on the scene.
Inside the apartment, police encountered two dogs who were not endangering the child but were protective, according to a police affidavit. They were, in essence, babysitting the boy, who was wearing only a shirt and had visible feces on his skin and signs of diaper rash. There was no one else there.
They tracked down the boy’s mother, Reese Louise Myers, who offered a startling admission.
She had left the day before to meet a guy she had met on the dating app Hinge, who lived some 160 miles away in San Antonio. Myers, 25, told police she had hired a babysitter — a human one — whom she had met on Facebook. The alleged sitter told police she last spoke to Myers in December 2023. Facebook messages between the two verified there had been no contact between them since then, the affidavit states.
There were other indicators inside the apartment that contradicted Myers’ account.
Police noticed several precautions that wouldn’t have been needed had a sitter been present. A baby gate was used to block off the kitchen. Deadbolts had been locked on all the doors and windows.
Myers was ordered to return to Texas, where she was charged with abandoning or endangering a child. Her son was put in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Police would later talk to a woman who said she witnessed Myers neglecting her boy while the two women lived together in October 2023. According to the affidavit, Myers would leave the house at night and sometimes not return until the next day. The woman said Myers told her the child would sleep through the night and not wake up.
The San Bernardino County (California) Sheriff’s Office arrested Myers on a fugitive warrant on Nov. 5. She has been extradited from California back to Texas, where she is being held in the Bells County Jail.
