NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- Authorities have arrested a New Albany woman on a warrant after she allegedly left four children alone in a park last year.
Police say that on July 2, 2011, 31-year-old Toya R. Best was at Bicknel Park in New Albany with four children, ages 10, 9, 6 and 2-months-old, when she got into an argument with a man at the park.
She then left the park, according to police, leaving the children there by themselves.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the four children decided to walk to the home of their uncle, near the corner of E. 7th St. and E. Elm St., several blocks away.
The children allegedly later told their uncle that they walked to a Rally's on the way, near the corner of E. Spring St. and Vincennes Street, and stopped inside to get some water. It was there that an "unknown woman" saw them and gave them a ride to their uncle's home.
At 2:30 p.m. that day, police say the "unknown woman" contacted the children's uncle to tell him she had dropped off the children at his home.
It was 5:35 p.m. that afternoon, according to police, when Best called the uncle to see if the children were there. Police say they later learned that she'd tried to file a missing persons report on the children.
When questioned about the incident, police say Best told them she had been chasing the man the children said she had met at the park because he had taken a cell phone. She also allegedly told investigators that she had never been at the park at all, but that it was the man who had left the children there while she was trying to get them something to drink.
Best was arrested on a warrant on Thursday and charged with neglect of a dependent, a felony.
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Toya R. Best (Source: Floyd County Corrections)
