A Marion County woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon after several children infested with lice and covered in open sores were found wandering the streets in the Porter Shores neighborhood in Ocala.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to the area of 33 Banyan Course after a 2-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy were found wandering in the roadway. The girl wasn’t clothed from the waist down and a witness provided a towel to cover her up. Both children had open sores, with the girl’s condition being the worst – sores on her arms, legs, chest, back, feet and face, a sheriff’s office report states.
While deputies were trying to determine where the children came from, they saw others riding bicycles. Those children, ages 6, 8, 9 and 13 – also infested with lice and suffering from open sores – were later identified as siblings of the young girl and boy that were found wandering the neighborhood.
The children told deputies that 30-year-old Sara Nicole Resko had left them at home alone while she was at work. A short time later, deputies entered the home and found that there was no running water, food or electricity in the house, the report says.
The home “was in complete disarray” and infested with flies, the report says, adding that the floor was covered with dog feces. And the children were only given mattresses on the floor with no linens to sleep on. Deputies said that their living conditions were “deplorable” and some of the worst they had ever seen, the report says.
Resko, who works at ATM Insurance, arrived at the house about 90 minutes later and told deputies she had only been gone for a few minutes. But she “quickly began changing her story once deputies told her how long they had been there investigating,” the report says.
A check of Resko’s background showed two previously reported incidents (Feb. 2 and April 13, 2017) where the children were left unsupervised. The Department of Children and Families responded to the Feb. 2 incident and implemented a supervision plan with Resko, who was instructed to not allow the 13-year-old to babysit the other children anymore, the report says.
Deputies ultimately determined that Resko failed on multiple occasions to provide care and supervision for the children. She was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where she was charged with six counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. She is being held on $12,000 bond.
DCF responded to the scene and took custody of the six children, with plans to place them in alternative housing.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies also were at Resko’s home on April 13, 2017 after being called about a child running naked around the house with no adults in the home. At the time, a deputy made contact with the children in the house and Resko arrived home about 10 minutes later. She immediately became defensive and stated that it was just “neighbors not minding their own business.”
Resko also told the deputy she had spoken with DCF on multiple occasions and been told a 12-year-old in the home was old enough to watch the other children, a sheriff’s office report says, adding that Resko was uncooperative when asked to explain the circumstances that led to a 12-year-old needing to watch five other children ages 20 months to 8 years old.
The deputy noted that he wasn’t allowed into the residence and Resko was “uncooperative” in dispelling any concerns that he had regarding the cleanliness levels or safety of the children while she is away. The deputy spoke with an investigator at DCF who said the agency would be taking a report.