Las Cruces mother arrested after allegedly leaving children alone while she went drinking

A 25-year-old Las Cruces mother has been arrested after she allegedly left her 1-and 3-year-old children home alone on Wednesday evening while she went out drinking.

Kandy Marmolejo, of the 2200 block of Sambrano, has been charged with two counts of negligent child abuse.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday Las Cruces Police were called after neighbors found Marmolejo’s 1- year-old son crawling around the parking lot and her 3-year-old daughter was wandering around asking for her mother.

Police say they believe Marmolejo left her children alone for as many as four hours while she went to a friend’s house and drank beer.

Police learned that, after finding the children outside, neighbor’s telephoned Marmolejo who indicated that she would return home within an hour.

Police said Marmolejo eventually returned home and retrieved her daughter from the neighbors but the neighbors refused to hand over her son and Marmolejo went back to her apartment.

Other than Marmolejo’s son being hungry, there were no apparent injuries to the children.

The children were turned over to the custody of the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department. Marmolejo was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center with bond set at $20,000.