Sheriff's Office: DeLand woman charged with child neglect after leaving 4-year-old daughter alone to search for crack

DELAND -- A DeLand woman was arrested Saturday morning by Volusia County Sheriff's deputies for leaving a 4-year-old girl home alone while the defendant reportedly went off on a crack cocaine binge.

Patricia Reynolds, 39, is facing charges of child neglect, prisoner escape and resisting an officer with violence.

The Sheriff's Office was contacted at about 7:10 a.m. by a woman who said that a 4-year-old girl showed up on her doorstep at about 5:45 a.m.

"The woman said the child was dressed in pajamas, shivering and crying hysterically," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "The woman took the girl inside, wrapped her in a blanket and calmed her down and then walked over to her apartment, but no one
was there. She then tried to call the couple who lived at the apartment on their cell phones, but got no answer."

That's when she decided to call 911. When deputies arrived, the child told them that Reynolds was there when she went to sleep, but when she woke up, she was gone.

Deputies started canvassing various neighborhoods in the area, eventually locating Reynolds at about 8:15 a.m. next to a gas station near South Woodland Boulevard and West Beresford Road just north of DeLand, near an area known for drug and transient activity.

During her arrest, while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, Reynolds became violent and banged her head against the cage. She then
slipped out of the handcuffs and attempted to take off, but deputies managed to get her under control, Davidson said.

However, she continued to struggle with the deputies and kick them in an attempt to get away, the spokesman said.

While on the ground, Reynolds intentionally slammed her head against the pavement numerous times and had to be treated at Florida Hospital DeLand for head lacerations before being taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach, Davidson said.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend was eventually contacted by phone. He was out of town helping a relative with some medical issues and said he had left the child with Reynolds. He said Reynolds occasionally uses crack cocaine, but had never endangered the child
before. The Florida Department of Children and Families also responded and the child was placed in the care of a relative.

While Reynolds declined to give a statement to deputies, hospital staff told deputies that she had admitted using crack cocaine all night, Davidson said.