Mother charged after allegedly abandoning 2-year-old child at Bristol apartment

A mother faces a felony charge for allegedly leaving her son with a neighbor and informing her she would not be returning to pick the boy up.

A mother faces a felony charge for allegedly abandoning her 2-year-old child at an apartment in Bristol last month.

Ivette Hernandez, 26, of Bristol was arrested last Wednesday on one count of abandonment of a child in connection with an incident reported on Oct. 9, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.

Officers with the Bristol Police Department were contacted by Hernandez’s upstairs neighbor on Conlon Street who said Hernandez had left her 2-year-old child in the upstairs apartment and later informed her she would never be returning to pick him up, the affidavit said. The neighbor said she was alerted to the situation by her adult daughter who sent her a text message indicating Hernandez’s child was at their apartment and that she was unsure as to why, according to the warrant.

When the neighbor contacted Hernandez, the mother told her police and the state Department of Children and Families would be coming to get the boy, according to the affidavit. She told her neighbor to put the child in her downstairs apartment and that she would call authorities to let them know the boy was alone in an apartment, the affidavit said.

The neighbor said Hernandez packed a bag for the boy and that “she no longer wanted to care for him,” police wrote in the affidavit. The neighbor said she asked Hernandez in a text message, “So you abandoned your son?” and she confirmed this was the case, according to the affidavit.

The neighbor did not leave the child alone as Hernandez asked and instead contacted the police, the affidavit said.

Police said the boy’s grandmother agreed to take custody of him. Police said they also reached out to the father of Hernandez’s other two children and confirmed that the father had custody of them and that they were safe, according to the affidavit.

Judicial records indicate Hernandez appeared in New Britain Superior Court last week following her arrest. She is free from custody and is due back in court on Dec. 20. She did not enter a plea during the hearing.