Two parents accused of abandoning their three children in a padlocked house full of garbage and feces were charged by the Snohomish County prosecutor Friday. They were charged with criminal mistreatment and abandonment of dependent persons.
Lake Stevens Police Commander Dennis Taylor told KIRO 7 that the parents, Mark Dorson and Amanda Foley, had actually come back to their Lake Stevens house while police and fire units were rescuing their children on Jan. 31.
Taylor said Dorson and Foley had watched as medics treated their 11-month-old baby, who was hypothermic and dehydrated. The parents hid from view and did not identify themselves to authorities that night.
Taylor said the parents then showed up at a Monroe, Washington, Child Protective Services office three days later to try to retrieve their children. He said they were arrested there.
KIRO 7 has obtained the 911 call that alerted police to the children in danger.
In the recording, a caller from Crimestoppers told the dispatcher about “three little children who are known to be left alone on a weekly basis, because the parents are off at a casino.”
The caller continued, “This is a weekend thing - that the kids are always left alone and are sometimes left alone at night on the weekdays.”
Taylor said police are also investigating whether Foley and Dorson are involved in package thefts, based on a tip from that same 911 call. But he said there is no evidence of that so far.
Child Protective Services was awarded temporary custody of the children on Friday.
KIRO
