Mom Charged After 12-Year-Old is Found Wandering Streets

Mom Charged After 12-Year-Old is Found Wandering Streets

Last Edited: Friday, 20 Jun 2008, 7:28 PM EDT

Created: Friday, 20 Jun 2008, 3:37 PM EDT

SILVER SPRING, Md. – Montgomery County Police say they've charged a woman with child abuse after her adoptive daughter was found wandering the streets after midnight with bruises on her face and no shoes on her feet.

Investigators say they were called to the McDonald's restaurant on University Boulevard in Wheaton on June 15 at about 1 a.m. after employees reported finding a young girl with bruises on her face.  Officers say they learned that the 12-year-old girl had been wandering the street when she flagged down a citizen and asked for a ride to the restaurant.

According to police, she wasn't wearing any shoes at the time.  She was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Detectives say that their investigation led them to the girl's adoptive mother, 47-year-old Hyacinth Beverly Morgan of Silver Spring.  Morgan was arrested and she now faces charges of first-degree child abuse, first-degree assault, second-degree child abuse, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and false imprisonment.

Neighbors who live near Morgan's Silver Spring home say she has spent the last decade building what appears to be a daycare facility which never opened.  It's a three-story treehouse with jungle gyms, playhouses, and even a bird coop that neighbors call an eyesore.

Morgan is currently being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center on $750,000 bond.

Detectives are asking for help from the public in identifying any other victims, and they're also looking for the Good Samaritan who helped bring the young girl to the McDonald's in the early morning hours of June 15.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call the Montgomery County Police Family Crimes Division at (240) 773-5481.