STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) - A Central Virginia mother is being held without bond after her child was found alone upside down in a car seat inside a Stafford motel room.
Investigators said they found the child just before 11 p.m. Monday after receiving a call from the motel that a baby was constantly crying from inside one of the rooms.
"When the deputies opened the door, they found a 7 to 8 month old baby girl, strapped in a child restraint seat, now the seat was upside down on the bed, which obviously caused the baby to scream, was in some discomfort," Stafford County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Bill Kennedy said. "When they turned the baby over, they found bruising and scrapes consistent with the restraints of the child safety seat."
Deputies found no one inside the motel room, so they began canvassing the area for child's mother, 34-year-old Christine Faye Clark.
Stafford fire and rescue had the infant transported to a local hospital as a precaution. Citing court documents, Fredericksburg.com reported the infant had cocaine in her system.
"The deputies were there about close to an hour when the mother, Ms. Christine Clark, age 34, came running across the parking lot and said she needed to check on her baby," Kennedy said.
Clark was charged with Felony Child Abuse, Felony Child Endangerment and
Christine Faye Clark
Misdemeanor Obstruction of Justice.
Some who work nearby said they only started seeing Clark in the area within the last few days. They believe that a local church was helping her with her rent money and they said on several occasions, they asked her where her baby was.
"I think she deserves to be in jail," Karen Johnson, who works near the hotel where the child was found, said. "She brought her baby in here one time and then I asked her where the baby was the other times and she said the baby was sleeping."
Additionally, one woman, who asked not to be identified, told Wayne Covil that Clark asked her to babysit before, but that she had refused since she did not know the child -- or her mother.
