Arrested parents dined out while 5 kids went hungry at home with no food, overflowing toilet: Affidavit
Florida parents who shared meals together and dined out at restaurants were arrested this week after police found their five children desperately hungry alone in their family home without food, electricity or a working toilet, according to an arrest affidavit.
Sanel Canovic, 40, and Azra Nikocevic, 33, were arrested New Year’s Eve and each were charged with five counts of child neglect, according to Miami-Dade jail records. The children were taken into care.
Police arrived earlier in the day in the family’s Miami Beach neighborhood following a report from a passer-by of an unaccompanied 6-year-old boy crossing a street alone. “The kid didn’t look very clean,” the unidentifed witness told NBC6 in Florida . “I think he was still wearing a school uniform even though school has been out for a couple of days. His clothes were oversized.”
The boy took the officers to the family apartment where he and his four siblings ages 12 and under were staying alone while their parents were out.
The children told police they hadn’t eaten in at least 12 hours and were hungry. The eldest, a girl, explained to the officers that they usually ate breakfast and lunch at school, but hadn’t been in school for days because of the holidays. The girl said her mom sometimes left her $20 to buy food for the children. She reportedly told police she had no way to contact her parents.
Police recounted in the affidavit obtained by NBC6 that the toilet was filled with feces. The children reportedly told them they had to use rags or take showers after using the bathroom because there was no toilet paper and the room was mess.
The affidavit also reportedly noted: “The parents would frequently share a meal in the evening without providing food for the children. They would often leave the children at home while they went out to dinner.”
The children were fed at the police stationhouse while officers searched for their parents.
“They were nowhere to be found,” Miami Beach Police Department spokesman Christopher Bess told Law&Crime.
The parents were finally charged after police tracked them down, and they were released on their own recognizance.
Nikocevic later admitted to CBS News Miami that the “electricity was off” at the family home for more than a month, and the “toilet was clogged.” But she vowed to “fix everything.”
She denied the children ever went to bed hungry, but she acknowledged that she sometimes deniend them fast food or restaurant food.
She told CBS that she was attempting to apply for food stamps due to her low wages at her hotel job, and admitted she had been “focusing more on [her] job than the kids.”
She added: “Just take care of your kids and, you know, love them as much as you can.”
