A Florida woman has been arrested and accused of leaving her four minor children, including an infant, alone while on a weekend cruise, according to police.
The suspect, 29-year-old Nathalie Belizaire of North Miami Beach, was charged with four counts of child neglect without serious bodily injury.
Belizel’s lawyers deny the accusations.
According to North Miami Beach police, the father of Belizel’s two-month-old child saw a post on her WhatsApp Story on Thursday “describing what appeared to be the purchase of a cruise ticket.”
That day, police said, he spoke with Belizel, who told him she was sending the children to their great-grandmother.
But when he went to her apartment Saturday night, he saw the TV on through the blinds and heard children talking inside, prompting him to call 911, an arrest report said.
Both police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to force entry into the home.
There, “all four minor children were found inside … without adult supervision and hiding together in the bathroom,” police said.
Body camera video shows officers gathering the children and taking them outside.
When authorities spoke with the children’s great-grandmother, she said Belizel told her “she was sending the children because she was going out of town” but never brought them over.
Belizel’s brother also told police that his sister texted him around 8pm on Saturday “instructing him to check on her children.”
Police said they made multiple attempts to contact Belizel but were unsuccessful.
The investigation revealed that Belizell purchased a three-day ticket to the Bahamas on the Carnival Conquest for a Sept. 25 sailing.
The arrest report states that Belizell “left all four minor children, including a two-month-old infant and a two-year-old child, inside the residence without adult supervision while the defendant was out of town on the Carnival Conquest cruise ship.”
Authorities were waiting as Belizel disembarked Monday at the Port of Miami, where she was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and later released to North Miami Beach police.
Authorities said she declined to make a statement, citing her right to remain silent.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances and evidence obtained during the investigation, there is sufficient probable cause to establish that the defendant failed to provide necessary care and supervision to four minor children, thereby placing them at substantial risk of harm,” the arrest report reads.
Belizel appeared in bond court on Tuesday, where her bail was set at $10,000 and she was asked to stay away from the children.
“This can’t be made up. It says she went on a cruise and left the kids home alone,” Judge Mindy Glazer said during the hearing. “These poor kids, four of them, were home alone for three days. … I’m just thankful that something worse didn’t happen to these kids.”
Belizel’s lawyer said she denies the accusations.
“Of course she does,” Glazer replied. “A child, a child born in July this year, who would just abandon a child like this?”
Authorities said the children were safe and in foster care.