Police, Child Abandonment | featured news

A 30-year-old woman suspected of abandoning her infant son last week in an apartment building in St. Louis was found dead in the trunk of her car, prompting the police chief in a nearby town to stand on a street corner soliciting reward money for the hunt for her killer.

A suburban Des Moines couple is under arrest after their adopted teenage children reported being locked in the basement and fed under a locked door as punishment. The 45-year-old father and 44-year-old mother are charged with false imprisonment and neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.

A mother of 10 who threw a birthday party for her 5-year-old daughter at a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in suburban Houston, Texas, apparently forgot about the girl, went home without her and failed to realize her mistake until the next day, police said Friday.