Staff report

WALDO, Fla. – Tamara Stoiber, 37, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with two counts of child neglect and two counts of false imprisonment after allegedly leaving her five-year-old daughters sleeping in a shed, with a brick holding the door closed.

At about 2:55 a.m. on June 28, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a property in the 13600 block of NE U.S. Hwy 301 in Waldo, where the caller and the property owner said they had found two five-year-old girls asleep in a shed with a brick blocking the door. The deputy noted that the shed’s door was only held closed by the brick and the shed is only about 100 feet from the highway, so the children could have pushed their way out and wandered onto the highway in an area that was not well-lit.

Sabine Thrift, 59, was previously arrested for child neglect in the case because Stoiber reportedly asked her to babysit the girls, but Thrift allegedly left them alone after waiting about two hours.

The caller met with a deputy and reportedly told him that Stoiber, her five-year-old daughters, and her boyfriend had arrived at the property unannounced on Friday night, soaking wet and claiming to have walked from Gainesville to Waldo; she said the two girls were carrying bags.

The caller said she offered Stoiber and the girls a foot-long sandwich, but Stoiber ate the entire sandwich and did not share it with the children. The property owner reportedly saw Stoiber leave with her boyfriend but did not see Thrift until later.

The caller reportedly saw Thrift at the Waldo Train Station at some point after the children were left in the shed, and Thrift told her that Stoiber had left the children with her while she went to the store, but she was not going to babysit the children and Stoiber needed to learn her lesson.

The shed has no electricity or running water; the children had no way to call for help and no food or water, and the brick prevented them from easily getting out of the shed in an emergency. A large knife was reportedly found near the children and was accessible to them. The property owner reportedly said he did not give Stoiber permission to leave the children in the shed.

The deputy reported that Thrift sent a text message to Stoiber at one point that said, “I am leaving, [they’re] your kids, like to know what store you went.” Thrift allegedly stayed with the girls for about two hours and then left for two hours before returning to the shed; she was arrested at 5:35 a.m.

The deputy reported that Stoiber did not return until 6:42 a.m., “which is a longer than usual trip to the ‘store.’”

Post Miranda, Stoiber reportedly denied leaving the children as long as she had and said she had left the shed between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m.; however, the deputy reported that the children were found by the caller before 2:55 a.m. because that was when she called law enforcement. The deputy also noted that Thrift claimed to have stayed with the children for two hours and then left for two hours. Stoiber reportedly denied knowing anything about a brick being placed in front of the shed’s door, but the caller and property owner both said they found a brick there when they found the children.

Stoiber has been charged with two counts of child neglect for failing to properly supervise her children or provide them with food, water, lighting, and a phone for communication; she has been charged with two counts of false imprisonment for confining the children to a shed by placing a brick in front of the door.

Stoiber’s boyfriend, Matthew Earl Waldo, 47, is also listed as a suspect on Stoiber’s arrest report, but he has not been arrested as of the publication of this article.

Stoiber has no local criminal history; Judge Jonathan Ramsey set bail at $70,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.