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Woman charged with child abuse

Star - 12/17/2019

Dec. 17--A mother of four was charged with child abuse after police say she left her children alone in a hotel room without food or toiletries.

Staff at WoodSpring Suites on Sue Lane in Shelby called police and said Amanda Sue Dockery's children were in a room at the extended stay hotel without adult supervision. According to police, they responded to calls about the situation earlier that day and in October.

When investigators arrived around 7 p.m., they found four children ranging in age from 2 to 11. The youngest child had cuts on one of her wrists and a diaper that hadn't been changed for some time, the police report says.

The children were wearing dirty clothes, and the room was filthy, the police report said. One of the beds had blood on it. The children told officers that one of them had cut their dog's ear with a pair of scissors. Dockery would later tell them it was from a scab the dog had. There was no animal in the room when police were investigating.

Police reportedly called Dockery, and she told them she would be there in 15 minutes. She arrived 40 minutes later and told officers she'd been shopping with a friend. The oldest child had already told police his mom left when the sun was coming up.

After a few accounts of where she'd been followed by confessions she'd been lying, Dockery said she went to Blacksburg with her friend for a romantic encounter and they'd been there all day, the police report says.

DSS came to the hotel and attempted to find foster care for the children with no success, the police report said. The social worker laid out a safety plan with Dockery with a list of instructions, including to not leave her children home alone.

A police officer went to the magistrate's office and took out a criminal summons charging Dockery with misdemeanor child abuse. When officers returned to serve it, they told the 30-year-old woman that DSS would be stopping by to make sure she was not leaving her children unattended.

Dockery was investigated a couple of months ago after police were called to the hotel room on Oct. 24 for the same reason. DSS closed that investigation on Nov. 11, according to the police report.

Dockery is currently on probation out of Gaston County. In May she was convicted of school attendance law violation. She was convicted of the same offense in Gaston County in 2017.

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