Raven Yates, a Texan woman, got married and gave birth to a child. However, the marriage eventually deteriorated, and she and her husband parted ways. Later, Yates had another child with a different man, and there are claims that she left both children behind.
After giving birth to a daughter with her first husband, Raven Yates’ marriage failed, and she moved on to marry again and have another child. While Yates was raising her two children, her daughter’s father relocated to California and pursued a career as a music producer.
Following her divorce, Yates alleged that one of her former partners began to stalk her. On Facebook, she wrote a post claiming that her ex-husband was tailing her, and highlighted that he had been an absent father for over a decade.
Unbeknownst to the father of Yates’ daughter who was residing in California and assumed his child was safe living with her mother, Yates had abandoned them. Consequently, her 12-year-old daughter was left alone to care for her 3-year-old half-brother. Despite her best efforts, the girl was left in charge of her younger sibling while her mother was away. Unfortunately, they eventually ran out of food.
Reluctantly, the girl had to contact her father for assistance. However, Yates had previously warned the children that they would be separated if they contacted the authorities, leaving them with no other choice. Yates also instilled fear in her daughter that her father would take her away from her brother since they had different fathers, causing the girl to initially resist reaching out for help.
The girl tried her best to care for her younger sibling, but she was unable to manage. As a result, their living conditions deteriorated, and the authorities were appalled by the state in which they were living. The Police Chief of Roman Forest expressed concern that leaving the children unattended posed a grave risk to their safety.
Desperate Girl Eventually Called Her Father
Following her mother’s prolonged absence of seven weeks, the young girl mustered the courage to call her father and request food. However, to prevent herself and her brother from being separated, she fabricated a story. Rather than confessing that their mother had abandoned them, she told her father that Yates was simply at work.
The concerned father from California assured the children that he would send food to them. However, he had a nagging suspicion that something was amiss, which was later confirmed when he received a troubling phone call. During a conversation with Yates’ mother, he learned that his ex-wife had abandoned her children and returned to her hometown in Mobile, Alabama.
According to Police Chief Stephen Carlisle, the ex-mother-in-law of the man contacted him to inquire about Yates’ whereabouts since her children were missing. Upon hearing this news, the father became even more apprehensive and decided to take immediate action. He boarded the first available flight to Roman Forest to check on his children and also contacted the police to report the situation.
The father promptly arrived in Roman Forest, and law enforcement officers were dispatched to the scene. Upon inspection, they were appalled by the condition of the house. The Police Chief remarked, “The officers checked the bedrooms and discovered heavy urine odor coming from the 3-year-old’s bed.”
The two children had been left unattended from September 28, 2022, until November 14, 2022, without sufficient food and basic necessities. The Police Chief denounced the act of leaving the children alone, stating that it was extremely reckless. He further added that the fact that they had to fend for themselves for almost two months was a severe case of neglect.
According to police reports, Yates had been active on social media throughout the entire period when her children were left alone. The authorities were able to track her movements and location using her social media activity and subsequently issued an arrest warrant for her on December 8.
According to the mother, her daughter had thousands of dollars at home.
After the discovery of her children, Yates was later caught in South Alabama. The Roman Forest Police Department stated that she had been residing in a Mobile apartment complex with an unidentified man, and they were able to locate her with the help of an anonymous tip.
Two charges of abandoning and endangering a child without intention to return were pressed against Yates, and a family member took in the children.
Via Instagram, Yates was contacted by a reporter who gave her the opportunity to explain her situation. She alleged that she had left her home due to fears that her ex-partner was attempting to harm her, and claimed that she had already hired a nanny to care for her children while she was away. According to Yates, she left her kids to care for her seriously ill father, who was on life support.
Yates asserted that she had left her daughter with a substantial sum of money to spend as she pleased. However, the existence of the money has not been verified. The chief of the Roman Forest Police Department mentioned that when the children were discovered, there was no food remaining in the residence. He elaborated:
“There was no food in the house. Everything was empty. There [were] some dry beans and some spices. [That’s] about it.”
Following her arrest, Yates was captured on camera smiling in the back of the police car. She had been missing for two months after abandoning her children, and she leveraged the publicity to increase her presence on social media.
According to reports, Yates had a 14-year-old daughter who she had reported as a runaway in the same month that she left for Mobile. The sources further stated that all three of Yates’ children have been located and are residing with a relative in a secure environment.