Mom left 3 kids home alone for days while she went to Florida for a friend’s liposuction surgery, police say

WESTLAKE, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) – An Ohio mom could face jail time after police discovered she left her children home alone for nearly three days while she went to Florida.

A judge ruled that 32-year-old Domonique Knowles put her children in danger when she left them home alone and without a phone.

The mom would rarely check in on them, using FaceTime on a laptop and monitoring them from the home’s security cameras, according to police.

Police said Knowles left her 10-year-old child in charge of her two 7-year-old twin sisters with special needs.

Officials said Knowles took her 8-month-old son with her to Florida but left her three other kids at home alone.

Police credited the 10-year-old’s fourth grade teacher with bringing the issue to light.

“[The 10-year-old] kind of reported to her teacher that she talked to mom on the camera last night and that mom ordered them Uber Eats and left it at the door,” the teacher said in a phone call to police, requesting officers do a welfare check at the home.

When officers arrived, police said the apartment was filthy with liquid spilled all over the floor. While officers were there, one of the twin girls slipped and fell.

Prosecuting attorney Michael Maloney said he was horrified when he got the case.

“Mom wasn’t really checking in … remote work is one thing; remote mom is another. But mom wasn’t even checking in,” Maloney said. “The girls made that clear.”

Eventually, police tracked down the children’s grandmother. Maloney said Knowles never told her mom she was leaving the kids alone and going out of state.

“It was worse,” Maloney said. “Mom lied to her mother. There were adults that were available to help out.”

Knowles initially denied ever leaving Ohio, but police were able to prove she spent two nights in Miami.

“She lied,” Maloney said. “They showed her leaving Hopkins airport on the evening in question, timed the calls showing mom at an airport in Miami in about a two-hour time frame, which, of course, is about the flight time from Cleveland to Miami, and when mom was confronted with that, she changed her story and said something about having to be in Miami because her friend needed liposuction surgery.”

Police arrested Knowles and charged her with child endangerment.

“My kids are allowed to be here by themselves,” Knowles told police in body camera video.

“Not when you have two special needs kids,” the arresting officer responded.

Maloney also said a patio door was unlocked in the home.

“Every teacher and counselor at the school said there is no question these girls would have wandered off given the chance, and I don’t want to explain the things that could have happened then – a kidnapping, walking out behind a car.”

Knowles was found guilty of child endangerment earlier this month. She’ll be sentenced on Wednesday, and she could face up to six months in prison.