Westlake mother found guilty of leaving 10-year-old twin boys with special needs alone for 3 days

On October 22, 2024By Yukito

WESTLAKE, Ohio (WOIO) – A Westlake mom is facing jail time after police discovered she left her children home alone for nearly three days and occasionally watched them remotely via security cameras in Florida.

A judge ruled that 32-year-old Domonique Knowles endangered her children by leaving them at home alone and without a phone. Mom logged into Facetime using her laptop or monitored them via home security cameras.

If it weren’t for a concerned Westlake Elementary School teacher who asked for welfare, police might never have met the fourth-grader, and her two 7-year-old twin sisters with special needs would be home alone.

“She sort of informed the teacher that she had been talking to her mom on camera last night and that her mom had ordered Uber Eats for them and left it at the door,” the teacher said in a phone call to police.

Police found the apartment dirty and liquid spilled on the floor. While officers were on scene, one of the twins slipped and fell.

Westlake prosecutor Michael Maloney was horrified when he received the case.

“Mom didn’t really check in. I’m not sure I’d be happy with that. Working remotely is one thing, being a remote mom is another, but my mom didn’t even check in,” Maloney said. “The girls made that clear to me.”

Eventually, the police found the grandmother. Maloney said Knowles never told her mom she was leaving the children alone and leaving the state.

“It was worse,” Maloney said. “Mom lied to mother. There were also adults who were willing to help.”

Maloney said Knowles took her 8-month-old son with her to Florida but left her three other children at home.

Knowles denied leaving the state, but police were able to prove she spent two nights in Miami.

“She lied,” Maloney said. “The detective quickly figured it out, and we have pretty good technology and well-trained detectives. They showed her leaving Hopkins Airport that evening, timed the calls, showing Mom at the Miami airport in about two hours, which of course includes the flight time from Cleveland to Miami and the moment Mom was confronted in this way and changed her story and “she said something about having to stay in Miami because her friend needed liposuction surgery.”

Police arrested Knowles and charged her with child endangerment.

“My kids can be out here by themselves,” Knowles told Westlake police in the body camera footage.

“Not if you have two children with special needs,” the arresting officer replied.

“While officers were on scene, the patio door was open,” Maloney explained. “All the teachers and counselors at school said there was no doubt that these girls would run away if they had the chance, and I don’t want to explain what could have happened then, the kidnapping, the hit and run.”

Earlier this month, Knowles was found guilty of child endangerment. The verdict will be announced on Wednesday and she could face up to six months in prison.