Wednesday, September 30, 2026 -A Florida woman was arrested and accused of leaving her four minor children, including an infant, alone while she went on a 3-day cruise.
The suspect, Nathalie Belizaire, 29, of North Miami Beach,
is accused of four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.
According to North Miami Beach police, the father of one of
Belizaire’s children, who is 2 months old, had seen a post on her WhatsApp
story on Thursday “depicting what appeared to be a cruise ticket purchase.”
That day, he spoke to Belizaire, who told him she would be
dropping the children off with their great-grandmother, police said.
But when he went to her apartment Saturday night, he saw the
TV on through the blinds and heard the children talking inside, which led him
to call 911, an arrest report states.
Both police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and forced
entry into the residence.
There, “all four minor children were discovered inside ...
without adult supervision and were hiding together in the bathroom,” police
said.
Body camera video showed officers gathering the children and
leading them outside.
When authorities spoke to the kids’ great-grandmother, she
said Belizaire had told her that “she would be dropping the children off
because she was going out of town,” but never brought them over.
Belizaire’s brother also told police that around 8 p.m.
Saturday, his sister texted him, “instructing him to check on her children.”
Police said their multiple attempts to contact Belizaire
were unsuccessful.
An investigation revealed that Belizaire had purchased a three-day ticket to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Conquest with a sail date of Sept. 25.
Belizaire “left all four minor children, including a two-month-old infant and a two-year-old child, inside the residence without adult supervision while the defendant traveled out of town aboard a Carnival Conquest cruise ship,” the arrest report states.
On Monday, authorities were waiting as Belizaire disembarked
at PortMiami, where she was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection and later released to North Miami Beach police.
Authorities said she declined to provide a statement and
invoked her right to remain silent.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances and evidence
obtained during the investigation, sufficient probable cause existed to
establish that the defendant failed to provide the necessary care and
supervision for the four minor children, thereby exposing them to a substantial
risk of harm,” the arrest report reads.
Belizaire appeared Tuesday in bond court, where her bond was
set at $10,000, and she was asked to stay away from the children.
“You cannot make this up. It says she went on a cruise
and left her children home alone,” Judge Mindy Glazer said during the hearing.
“These poor kids, four of them, were home alone for three days. ... I’m just
grateful nothing worse happened to these kids.”
Belizaire’s attorney said she denies the allegations.
“Of course she does,” Glazer replied. “One baby, the baby
was born in July of this year. Who leaves a baby alone like that?”
Authorities said the children are safe and in foster care
0 Comments