A South Florida mother is facing criminal charges after police say she left her four young children, including a two-month-old baby and a toddler, alone at home while she went on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas.
Nathalie Belizaire, 29, has been charged with four counts of child neglect following the discovery.
North Miami Beach police were called to an apartment in the 1400 block of Northeast 170th Street around 8 p.m. Saturday for a welfare check. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, the father of Belizaire’s infant went to the home and found all four children there alone.
The father told investigators he’d become suspicious after spotting a WhatsApp message from Belizaire that looked like a Carnival cruise ticket. He said she had told him she was leaving the kids with a relative, but when he checked, that relative said the children had never been dropped off.
When he arrived at the apartment, he noticed the television flickering behind the blinds and could hear the children’s voices inside. He called police at that point.
Officers who entered the apartment found the four children hiding together in the bathroom. None of them were hurt.
Belizaire’s brother told police she had reached out by text asking him to look in on the kids, but he hadn’t gotten there before officers arrived. Investigators said they tried reaching Belizaire by phone multiple times, but she never picked up.
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Police say Belizaire had left Friday for what was supposed to be a three-day cruise. When her ship returned to port Sunday, officers were there waiting for her.
She was taken into custody and declined to answer questions, the affidavit says. Belizaire is currently being held at the Miami-Dade County Jail. No bond amount had been set as of the latest update, and a court date has not yet been scheduled.
Florida’s Department of Children and Families has opened its own investigation into the case.
