Florida Mom Arrested After Her Autistic Daughter Was Found Wandering Near Filth-Covered Home

What started as a routine welfare check after a neighbor’s 911 call in Palm Coast, Florida, turned into a disturbing discovery for the investigators.

WFTV reported on July 17 that Carla Nishikura, 41, was arrested on Thursday, July 16, after deputies with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded to a welfare check around 8:41 a.m. after receiving a call reporting a child seen wandering outside naked.

A neighbor found the girl and brought her back to the house before deputies arrived. The child, who is autistic and nonverbal, had left through the garage while Nishikura slept, she told deputies.

As per the affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, the mom told cops that she normally locked the door with zip ties but forgot the night before. When deputies entered the home, they were met with a strong odor of fecal matter coating the floors, walls, and ceiling of the kitchen and living room. The girl’s bedroom held only a bare bed frame, its floor covered in waste, cracked eggs and urine, forcing her to sleep on the living room couch instead.

ABC affiliate Gulf Coast News reported that one of her siblings told deputies they had been warned to stay out of that room, adding that the fecal matter had been there for about a month and was “hard as a rock.”

Deputies also found cracked outlet covers throughout the home, leaving exposed wiring within the children’s reach.

A case manager assisting the family said she had visited the home the day before, reported the conditions to Florida’s Department of Children and Families, and arranged a cleaning crew that ultimately refused the job over what it called biohazard conditions, as per the outlet.

Nishikura told investigators that her daughter had “a history of eloping” — a term used to describe when an autistic person wanders from a safe environment. However, she admitted to deputies that she knew about the home’s condition but said she couldn’t manage the household and her children alone.

Nishikura was booked into the Flagler County Jail on July 16 on three felony counts of neglect of a child without great bodily harm, court records show, with bond set at $2,500 per count for a total of $7,500, jail records show.

She has not yet entered a plea and is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on August 18, as per Law & Crime.