by: WESH
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DELTONA, Fla. (WESH)—A Florida woman knocked on the door of a Deltona home over the weekend and handed off her baby to a complete stranger, deputies say.
It was almost 10:30 p.m. and the resident of the home was asleep when a woman with her 3-month-old child in a carrier showed up at her Deltona home, rang the doorbell and handed the baby off.
“Some girl just came up and abandoned her baby at my door,” the resident told a 911 dispatcher. “She just pushed the baby in the door and walked away. I don’t know her name. I have no idea who she is.”
Investigators with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said the woman who abandoned the child is Melissa Kelley, 33.
Kelley was found hours later, near some woods in Astor where she lives.
The Deltona resident said Kelley told her she could no longer care for the infant and that the baby’s father would come for him.
It turns out the resident’s daughter is dating the baby’s father, but the resident didn’t know that at first.
“She came up and just left her baby. I said, ‘You are leaving your baby with me?’ And she said yes. I said, ‘You are abandoning your baby,’” the resident said.
According to the sheriff’s office report, Kelley was distraught over a breakup with the baby’s father.
Before leaving the baby at the Deltona home, Kelley allegedly sent text messages that read, “please don’t make me throw this baby in the trash” and talked about harming herself with drugs.
Deputies said Kelley left the infant in a soiled diaper with an empty baby bottle and a half can of formula. She also warned the resident the baby had scabies.
Kelley was ultimately charged with child neglect and child desertion.
The baby was taken to the hospital and placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
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