Authorities Seek Woman Accused Of Abandoning Children

CYPRESS, Texas (AP) – A Houston-area woman is accused of abandoning her children while she traveled to Nigeria to marry a man she met on the Internet.

A warrant names 33-year-old Shanell Monique Mosley of Cypress. She faces charges of child endangerment and child abandonment.

Harris County deputies making a welfare check last week at Mosley’s home found six children between the ages of one and nine — alone. Their 15-year-old sister was caring for them, as well as a neighbor’s two young children.

A criminal complaint filed against Mosley says the home was littered with trash and other debris and lacked a working phone.

Mosley’s six children and the neighbor’s two children have been placed in foster homes. A custody hearing is January 16th.

Authorities say Mosley’s family fled New Orleans after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)