Mother allegedly confined 9-year-old daughter to home since 2017, had to ‘beg to eat’: Police
Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News
(MIAMI) — A Florida mother has been arrested and charged with felony child neglect after not allowing her 9-year-old daughter to leave their house since 2017, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Kelli McGriff-Williams, 42, did not allow her daughter to leave the home from 2017 to 2023, confining her “the majority of the time to a bedroom,” according to the arrest report.
McGriff-Williams is accused of not enrolling her daughter in school, with the report saying she was never provided with an education.
“The victim is unable to read and write,” Miami-Dade police wrote in the report. “The defendant has never taken the victim to a doctor even when she has been very ill.”
“The victim would have to beg to eat, and the defendant would not always provide food to the victim,” police wrote in an arrest report.
An officer responded to a home after a Florida Department of Children and Families investigation into the allegations. McGriff-Williams was involuntarily admitted under the Baker Act criteria at Jackson South Hospital on Aug. 26 due to her “altered mental state,” according to the arrest report.
Police interviewed the victim at her father’s residence on Aug. 30 and she confirmed the allegations.
The victim’s father told police he had been trying to gain custody of his daughter through the court system since 2017 and he told police that the allegations were correct, according to the arrest report.
McGriff-Williams was taken into custody on Sept. 1 when she was discharged from the hospital.
She was booked on Sept. 3 and is being held on a $5,000 bond, according to Miami-Dade County records.
McGriff-Williams pleaded not guilty in court Thursday. She was assigned a public defender. ABC News has reached out to her lawyer for comment.
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