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PROVO — A Provo woman was arrested Wednesday after police say she left her young boy alone for over two hours.
Katherine Gonzalez-Ferrer, 30, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of child abandonment.
An employee at an apartment complex, near 750 S. 650 West in Provo, went to a unit to do maintenance work on Tuesday and reported finding a young boy crying inside.
Police responded to the apartment and observed the 1-year-old child was only wearing a diaper. An officer tried calling Gonzalez-Ferrer multiplies without success. The toddler was taken into protective custody about an hour after being found, according to a police booking affidavit.
As the officer was driving away from the apartment he received a call from Gonzalez-Ferrer.
"I asked her to return to her home so I could speak with her. In the 43-second phone call, she did not ask the reason I was calling her," the officer noted in the arrest report.
Gonzalez-Ferrer claimed she had hired a babysitter who was still in the apartment when she left, the affidavit says. On Wednesday, Gonzalez-Ferrer was questioned again at the Provo Police Department.
"Katherine then retracted her statement … stating that she attempted to get a babysitter, but none were available. Katherine knowingly left her 1-year-old child home alone and knew no supervision would arrive at the home for the child," according to the affidavit.
Gonzalez-Ferrer claimed she left her son at home so "she could go deliver food to make extra money" and estimated the boy was alone for two hours and 15 minutes, police say.
"Katherine's 1-year-old child was left alone, crying, without food and without clothes/clean diaper," the affidavit states.
