MIAMI – A Miami mother is facing charges after police say she left her 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter unattended in her condominium complex on Thursday.
Authorities responded to a call at The Madison Condominiums, located near the 800 block of North Miami Avenue, after a neighbor reported finding the two children alone.
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The neighbor informed police that a member of the condominium’s property management discovered the children wandering but found no one at the home.
Police attempted to contact the children’s mother, who they identified as 35-year-old Regina Mukoseeva, but received no response despite multiple attempts.
Upon arrival, authorities found Mukoseeva at her condo on the eighth floor. Maria Herrera, the property manager for the Madison Condominiums, reviewed video surveillance footage with responding officers.
According to an arrest report, Mukoseeva was observed on the elevator with her oldest child, heading to the lobby.
At approximately 7:45 a.m., Mukoseeva’s 2-year-old son was found alone in the garage elevator of the complex, pressing random buttons, which resulted in the elevator reaching the 11th floor. Subsequently, a male entered the elevator, went to the lobby, and left, with the boy following him, the report stated.
Shortly after, the boy exited the building, wandered on the sidewalk, and later entered the garage elevator, where he remained crying. Another male entered the elevator, noticed the child crying, and called out for his mother, subsequently alerting security, according to police.
The security guard contacted a housekeeping employee who picked up the child and took him to the property management office at 7:55 a.m.
Upon further investigation, police said Mukoseeva’s 4-year-old daughter opened the door for property management and informed them that her mother had gone to take her older sister to school. The property manager then escorted the child to her office.
Police spoke with a housekeeper of the condominium complex, who stated she had been working there for about three years and was informed by a security guard about the 2-year-old child found in the garage elevator.
After Mukoseeva arrived at the Miami Police Department’s Central Station with both of her children, she agreed to speak with detectives without an attorney present.
According to authorities, she stated that both her children had been sick, experiencing vomiting and fevers. She claimed to remind them not to go near the balcony and asserted that she only leaves them briefly to dispose of trash or retrieve mail from downstairs.
Mukoseeva is facing two counts of child neglect with no great bodily harm, jail records show.
As of Friday, she remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a magistrate hold.