Two Bryan residents were charged this week in separate cases involving children left home alone, authorities said.
Thomas Melvin Cariss, 29, and Susie Ann Gonzales, 19, were charged Monday with abandoning or endangering a child with intent to return.
The charge is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine up to $10,000.
Officials said Cariss left an 18-month-old girl home alone, while Gonzales is accused of leaving five children, ranging in age from two weeks to 7 years old, home alone.
A woman told police that she left her daughter with Cariss about 1 p.m. when she returned to work after a lunch break at home.
When she returned to the Bexar Grass Drive home around 3 p.m., the child was alone in a crib and covered in urine and feces, police said.
Cariss returned to the home about 3:55 p.m., police said, and told authorities that he had left the child alone for 30 minutes while he dropped a friend off at his home and then stopped at a convenience store for a drink, police said.
In the other case, a Bryan officer was following up on an unrelated assault case when a 7-year-old boy answered the door at a Palasota Drive home. The boy told the officer that the adult watching him had gone to the store about 10 minutes prior, according to the police report.
Police said the boy was the oldest of five children left alone in the home. The officer waited for more than half an hour before Gonzales returned, according to the police report.
Cariss was released from the Brazos County Jail on Tuesday after posting $5,000 bail. Gonzales remained in jail Tuesday night. Her bail was set at $5,000.
The below map shows police calls reported by the College Station Police Department each day from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. (indicated by blue markers), police calls reported by the Bryan Police Department daily from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. (indicated by yellow markers), as well as incidents reported by The Eagle in Bryan, College Station and surrounding areas (indicated by red markers). Click on individual incidents or markers for details.
Editor's Note: The Eagle has produced this map based on information provided by the College Station and Bryan Police Departments. The map does not include all calls for service and the information is preliminary. Data provided by the police department may not accurately reflect the nature of the calls, and the status of reported incidents may change after further investigation. Locations are approximate.
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