Police search for mom accused of leaving kids for 2 months

(NewsNation) — A Texas mother is wanted by police after she allegedly abandoned her 12-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son for nearly two months, authorities say.

Raven Yates, 31, of Roman Forest, Texas just north of Houston, is facing two counts of abandoning or endangering a child without intent to return, after she allegedly left her children to fend for themselves “without access to food or medical supplies,” from Sept. 28 to Nov. 14, 2022, according to Roman Forest police.

The 12-year-old’s father reported to police on Nov. 14, 2022, that his daughter and her 4-year-old brother had been left alone, and immediately flew in from California where he lives, officials said.

Officials said father was informed Yates was seen in Mobile, Alabama without the children, and realized they had been left home alone because his daughter had been asking him to send her food regularly.

The father met with officers at the house where the two children were staying. Roman Forest Police Chief Stephen Carlisle told ABC News the father did not live in the home but did pay the rent.

Police described living conditions inside the home as “deplorable”.

“The conditions inside the house did look like a 12-year-old was taking care of a 3-year-old,” Carlisle told KSAT-TV in San Antonio. “Miraculously and thankfully they were both healthy and they had created ways of getting food,”

Meanwhile, KTRK-TV in Houston reported that the children were never enrolled in school when they moved to Texas a year ago.

After police arrived at the home in November, the children were sent to live with a family member in Alabama, police said.

Roman Forest and Mobile, Alabama police are working together to find Yates.