Children Found Filthy, Starving; Parents Charged

Child welfare authorities took custody Sunday of three small children found filthy and starving after their father called police to complain that their mother had left them home alone for three days.

Asked why he hadn’t fed or cleaned the children himself, Ahmed Aldaeesheh told police, “I don’t do that.”

Aldaeesheh, 34, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after he reported the children abandoned by their mother on Saturday, police spokesman Robert Samuel said.

Later, the mother, Sylvia Ayala, 21, also was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, abandonment and assault.