A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Tuesday on charges she abandoned two children on the side of a busy street, telling them that nobody loved them, records show.
Heather Ann Perez Miranda, 37, is charged with two counts of neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, two counts of child endangerment and one count of domestic abuse assault.
Heather Ann Perez Miranda (Linn County Jail)
According to a criminal complaint, a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl were found June 8 on the side of Tower Terrace Road near Interstate 380. The 8-year-old has a congenital deformity to her mouth area and is dependent on a tracheostomy and a gastrostomy tube.
The Hiawatha Police Department was called, and the children told officers that Perez Miranda — who they told police was their mother — had dropped them off on the road after telling them that nobody loved them. They said she had gotten into a fight earlier that day with their dad, and that he wasn’t with them when they were dropped off.
Investigators later found out that the kids are not Perez Miranda’s biological children, although records do not specify her relation to them.
She has four biological children with the children’s father who were with her when she left the 6-year-old and the 8-year-old on the roadside, records state.
The father confirmed to officers that he and Perez Miranda had fought at their house in southwest Cedar Rapids earlier that day. He told police that Perez Miranda punched him in the face, and he left on a bike to get a hotel room, leaving the kids in her care.
Perez Miranda drove to a campground in Western Iowa that day. She told police she had dropped the two kids off with their father, but video surveillance showed Perez Miranda’s truck driving toward the area where the kids were left and then leaving that area again. Police were also able to confirm that the father’s vehicle never left his residence in Cedar Rapids that day.
“The children were left on Tower Terrace Road, a busy city street, and also near I-380, by themselves, exposing them to hazard or danger,” the complaint reads.
A warrant was issued Sept. 27 for Perez Miranda’s arrest and she was booked Tuesday in the Linn County Jail.
She had her first appearance in court Wednesday and was being held on a $25,000 cash-only bail. A no-contact order has been filed on behalf of the two children and their father.
www.thegazette.com
Heather Ann Perez Miranda, 37, is charged with two counts of neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, two counts of child endangerment and one count of domestic abuse assault.
According to a criminal complaint, a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl were found June 8 on the side of Tower Terrace Road near Interstate 380. The 8-year-old has a congenital deformity to her mouth area and is dependent on a tracheostomy and a gastrostomy tube.
The Hiawatha Police Department was called, and the children told officers that Perez Miranda — who they told police was their mother — had dropped them off on the road after telling them that nobody loved them. They said she had gotten into a fight earlier that day with their dad, and that he wasn’t with them when they were dropped off.
Investigators later found out that the kids are not Perez Miranda’s biological children, although records do not specify her relation to them.
She has four biological children with the children’s father who were with her when she left the 6-year-old and the 8-year-old on the roadside, records state.
The father confirmed to officers that he and Perez Miranda had fought at their house in southwest Cedar Rapids earlier that day. He told police that Perez Miranda punched him in the face, and he left on a bike to get a hotel room, leaving the kids in her care.
Perez Miranda drove to a campground in Western Iowa that day. She told police she had dropped the two kids off with their father, but video surveillance showed Perez Miranda’s truck driving toward the area where the kids were left and then leaving that area again. Police were also able to confirm that the father’s vehicle never left his residence in Cedar Rapids that day.
“The children were left on Tower Terrace Road, a busy city street, and also near I-380, by themselves, exposing them to hazard or danger,” the complaint reads.
A warrant was issued Sept. 27 for Perez Miranda’s arrest and she was booked Tuesday in the Linn County Jail.
She had her first appearance in court Wednesday and was being held on a $25,000 cash-only bail. A no-contact order has been filed on behalf of the two children and their father.
Cedar Rapids woman charged with abandoning two children on street
A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Tuesday on charges she abandoned two children on the side of a busy street, telling them that nobody loved them, records show.
www.thegazette.com
