Additional Coverage:
- Mom blamed 8-year-old’s ‘history of eloping’ after child found wandering alone barefoot outside (themirror.com)
A Florida mother has been arrested after authorities found her autistic, 8-year-old daughter wandering outside their home naked and barefoot. Carla E. Nishikura, 41, told police her daughter’s behavior was due to a “history of eloping” when officers confronted her.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded after a neighbor noticed the young girl outside without clothes and brought her back inside. Upon investigating, deputies discovered Nishikura and her two other children were living in extremely unsanitary conditions, described in court records as biohazardous. Nishikura now faces three felony charges of child neglect.
The girl, identified in court documents only as “E.N.,” is nonverbal and has been diagnosed with autism. Nishikura said her daughter had slipped out through the garage door while she was asleep. She explained that she normally secured the door with zip ties on the interior handles but forgot to do so the night before, allowing the girl to leave on her own.
When officers entered the home, they were immediately met with a strong odor of fecal matter. Investigators reported that the kitchen and living room were coated with feces on the floors, walls, and even the ceiling.
The children’s bedroom was found to have only a bed frame without a mattress, with the floor covered in feces, cracked eggs, and urine. Nishikura said her daughter had been sleeping on the living room couch to avoid the filth in her room.
One deputy observed the child using a tool to scrape feces from the wall and manipulate it with her hands. Additionally, there were multiple cracked electrical outlets throughout the house, leaving dangerous exposed wiring accessible to the children.
A case manager working with the family told authorities she had arranged for a professional cleaning company to clean the home, but they refused due to the hazardous conditions. Nishikura also stated that she had filed a report with the Florida Department of Children and Families after seeing the state of the house.
One of the other children said they were not allowed to enter the autistic girl’s room because the walls had been stained with excrement for about a month and the buildup was “hard as a rock.”
While Nishikura admitted the home conditions were unacceptable, she told officers she felt overwhelmed and “unable to manage her home and children on her own.” The investigation remains ongoing.