Parents of a two-year-old child are in police custody after leaving their toddler alone at their apartment while on what they said was a “business trip” to New York, Charleston police confirmed.
Both 24-year-old parents, Donald Gekonge and Darline Aldrich, were booked for unlawful conduct toward a minor.
On November 17, 2022, police received a report that a child was alone in the Charleston apartment complex. A witness told authorities that the child’s father, Gekonge, had sent a text saying he was in New York City for business.
At the apartment complex, the apartment manager could not contact anyone in the apartment, so they conducted “an emergency walk-through.”
When authorities entered the house, they found the two-year-old child sleeping on the living room bed.
“When we got into the house, the child woke up and reached out for his empty water bottle,” police said.
Besides the soiled diapers, the toddler seemed unharmed. A foster care service transferred the boy to the Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital for further medical examination.
The initial attempts to reach out to the child’s parents were unsuccessful. However, Gekonge, the toddler’s father, called the complex after a while and told the cops that he left the house early in the morning and was “a few states away.” Later, he claimed that he was in New York “on business,” and assumed the mother was taking care of their baby, a statement he revised later, claiming the mother was also in New York “for an emergency.”
As of Wednesday, the two were still in custody. The father and mother’s bonds were set at $50,000 and $75,000, respectively.