CASELBERRY, Florida. – The 2 km journey that two children took alone on State Route 436 in Casselberry led to the arrest of their mother, who allegedly left them unsupervised for about three hours.
Tanice Spence-Clarke, 38, was arrested and charged with child neglect without bodily injury after the incident over the weekend in Casselberry, according to an arrest affidavit from the Casselberry Police Department.
Around 6:45 p.m. Saturday, a woman approached a police officer because she was concerned about the fate of two boys left unsupervised at the Walmart on SR-436 in Casselberry. The ages of the children were not revealed in the arrest affidavit.
The woman said the two children had arrived about 45 minutes before and that she even tried to contact their mother by phone and through her social media profile, but was unsuccessful.
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The children told the woman the last place they saw their mother, Spence-Clarke, was a hair salon in the 900 block of SR-436, according to the affidavit. The woman said she went to the hairdresser to see if the children’s mother was there, but to no avail. The barbers said the two children were there earlier after their mother dropped them off.
Police noted that the children walked from the hair salon to the Walmart, located 1.2 miles away.
“The children…were required to cross SR-436, a major roadway with high traffic volume, unsupervised,” the affidavit states.
The children of Tanice Spence-Clark, who was arrested for child neglect, walked unsupervised for 1.2 miles and had to cross busy SR-436 after being left unsupervised for three hours, according to the department Casselberry police station.
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Police attempted to contact Spence-Clarke, but were unable to reach her by phone. They did, however, make contact with the man who appears to be the boys’ father, but he was “completely unaware” of their whereabouts, according to the affidavit. He went to Walmart and gave police another phone number for Spence-Clarke, which went straight to voicemail.
At 8 p.m., Spence-Clarke arrived at Walmart, police said.
She was read her Miranda rights and said she couldn’t explain what happened. According to the affidavit, she repeatedly changed her story, contradicted herself or was unable to think of what to say. She also provided police with a cell phone number that no one had.
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Spence-Clarke said she went to the nearby Bravo Supermarket on SR-436 to buy groceries while her children got their hair cut at the barbershop, the affidavit states. Police say she couldn’t provide a receipt and didn’t have any groceries in her car.
She told another story about how her car was having mechanical problems and she asked her sister and brother-in-law to help her, which would explain the lack of races in her car because they had been transferred to another.
However, when the brother-in-law arrived at the scene, he was “confused” by police questions about the mechanical problem. He also mentioned that Spence-Clarke was at his home around 5:30 p.m.
“Yet another contradiction with his extensive recollection of the events, which further strengthens the likelihood of his culpable neglect of the two minors,” the affidavit states.
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The affidavit mentioned that Spence-Clark was in a caregiver capacity, but did not provide details.
“Spence-Clarke, through culpable negligence, failed or failed to provide (her two sons) the care, supervision and services necessary to maintain the physical or mental health of (her two sons),” the affidavit states. “Leaving (her two sons) unattended for about 3 houses, she didn’t know where they were. Additionally, she also could not be contacted by Walmart employees or law enforcement and did not contact law enforcement when she noticed that (her two sons) ) were missing.”
She was transported to the Seminole County Jail and has since been released after posting $2,500 bond, according to court records.
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