EAST LANSING, Mich. – The East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) has provided an update on the missing children case from Aug. 30.
The follow-up investigation into what occurred led to the caller/mother of the children, Andria Downes, and a neighbor, Alexandria Dockery, being charged with fourth degree child abuse, a one-year misdemeanor. Both are 25-year-old females residing in East Lansing.
ELPD learned after speaking with the father of the missing children that his six-year-old daughter had called him the previous night while he was at work, stating there were no adults home and she was scared. The father of the three children tried to contact the mother, but was unable to reach her. He left work, traveled to the mother's home and discovered that the three children, one six-year-old and two four-year-olds, were home alone. He arrived at the home at approximately 10:50 p.m. The father continued to try and contact the mother, but could not reach her. The father then took the children to his home in Delta Township, where he was contacted by ELPD the next morning after the mother reported her children missing.
In speaking with Downes, ELPD learned that Downes and her neighbor, Alexandria Dockery, also charged in this incident, went shopping at a local Meijer store that night. Dockery also left her children, a seven-year-old and a one-year-old, at her home unattended that evening.
Child Protective Services has been contacted. Both suspects turned themselves in to the East Lansing 54B District Court last week and have been arraigned.