Florida mom arrested after leaving 3-year-old for 12 hours in car she said was stolen

A mother was arrested after leaving a 3-year-old in a car for 12 hours.

June 18, 2018, 5:28 PM

A Florida mother of three allegedly left her youngest daughter in an overheated car overnight, authorities said.

Casey Dyan Keller, 33, took all three of her kids along with her on Saturday night to purchase liquor, according to a statement by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies arrived at the Vista Haven Apartments on Petunia Terrace in Sanford, Florida, and discovered the girl "overheated and in and out of consciousness," according to the release.

When Keller discovered her daughter wasn't in her apartment after almost a full night, she dialed 911 "freaking out" that her car had been stolen with her sleeping child in it.

A recording of the call was reviewed by ABC News. In it, a dispatcher asks Keller a series of questions as she breathes heavily and repeatedly breaks into tears.

"My baby's missing," Keller tells the 911 dispatcher. "I went to get her in the car, and my car's missing and my baby's missing."

Keller's panic only increased.

The mother explained to the dispatcher that she parked her unlocked 2005 Toyota Corolla "in front of my building" and left her daughter to sleep in a car seat for "less than an hour," later saying, "half-an-hour at most."

Keller then told the dispatcher, "I went upstairs as she was sleeping, so I cracked the window and I came back down to here, and it wasn't even an hour."

When pressed about where her keys were, Keller told the dispatcher: "I brought them upstairs. No one would have been able to get in my apartment without them ... I'm downstairs freaking out."

At one point, the mother appears to tell her other two children standing with her, "Somebody stole the car. I don't know. I don't know how to steal cars."

The mother is asked about the father of the child and again talks to someone other than the dispatcher, stating, "Can you get me a drink, sweetheart?"

Deputies on scene found the child in car in the parking lot of the apartment complex "with all the windows rolled-up," according to their statement.

"Keller traveled to a local liquor store late [Saturday] night with three children," and after returning home at around 11:15 p.m. she took the two older children to the apartment, but "neglected to remove the 3-year-old child," according to the release.

The child was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was listed in critical but stable condition.

Keller was charged with child neglect with great bodily harm and booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on Sunday. She was released on Monday after posting $15,000 bond, authorities confirmed to ABC News.