Couple arrested after child found wandering with dog in Deltona, authorities report

DELTONA, Fla. – The Volusia Sheriff’s Office on Saturday announced the arrest of a woman and her boyfriend after a 6-year-old girl was allegedly found wandering with a dog in Deltona.

Pitrez Floyd, 29, and Aquania Estes, 27, face charges of unlawful desertion of a child and abandonment of an animal, records show.

A deputy responded around 4:30 p.m. Friday to the 600 block of Elgrove Drive, meeting with a woman who had called the sheriff’s office to report the girl was wandering in her front yard, according to an affidavit. The girl allegedly said that she was hot and thirsty, the affidavit states.

The caller and her neighbor provided the girl with food and water, as well as clean underwear due to how she wasn’t wearing any at the time, according to the affidavit. The girl had only a small backpack containing a blanket, a marker, a Medicaid card and a toilet bowl cleaner used as a brush, the affidavit states, adding she had a black dog tied to her dress and had no money or cellphone.

The girl said that she had been dropped off at a park earlier that morning by her mother, Estes, who allegedly told her that she and her boyfriend, Floyd, needed to go charge their cellphones, according to the affidavit.

Further, the girl “described her home as one that leaks when it rains and said she is often allowed to leave and walk to stores on her own,” the affidavit states.

In video of the investigation and the later arrests — which was shared Saturday by the sheriff’s office on social media — Floyd and Estes are seen being questioned at night by deputies while handcuffed and sat against a patrol car.

Estes can be heard in the video telling deputies that they’re homeless. The video ends with shots showing a tent in the woods. According to the post, the girl does not attend school.

Floyd and Estes were booked Saturday and each given a $51,000 bond.

The girl was taken to the Volusia Family Resource Center, where her grandparents were contacted to take custody of her, the post states.