Ohio mom left kids home alone to visit a friend who was having lipo surgery

An Ohio mother left her two special needs daughters with their 10-year-old sister while she went on a three-day trip to Miami to visit a friend who was undergoing liposuction surgery.

Domonique Knowles, 32, faces jail time Wednesday after being found guilty of child endangerment for leaving them home alone without a phone while only occasionally checking in online — and having their food delivered by Uber Eats, reported WAGM TV.

“My mother wasn’t really checking in,” prosecutor Michael Maloney said.

“Remote working is one thing; a remote mother is another.”

The mother took her 8-month-old son to Florida, but left behind her 7-year-old daughters who had special needs and needed to be cared for by their 10-year-old sister – with the patio door locked the entire time.

“It was even worse,” Maloney said – saying Knowles “lied” to her own mother, who could have cared for her grandchildren. “There were adults available to help.”

While they were some 1,200 miles away from their Westlake home, the mother only occasionally checked in on her single children on her laptop and through her security cameras, officials said.

The alarm was raised by the 10-year-old’s fourth-grade teacher after the student told her “she talked to mom on camera last night” and that her mother had called Uber Eats and left it at the door.

When officers arrived, the apartment was filthy and there was liquid all over the floor, police said. While officers were there, one of the twin girls slipped and fell.

Knowles initially denied leaving Ohio. However, authorities were able to prove that she was in Miami.

“She lied,” Maloney said. “They showed her leaving Hopkins airport on the night in question, and timed the calls showing her mother at a Miami airport in the span of about two hours, which of course is about the flight time from Cleveland to Miami , and when mom was confronted about it, she changed her story and said something about having to be in Miami because her friend needed liposuction surgery.

When he was arrested, Knowles told police, “My children are allowed to be here alone.”

The arresting officer replied, “Not if you have two children with special needs.”

Officials also said a patio door in the home was unlocked the entire time the children were left alone.

“Every teacher and counselor at the school said there is no doubt that these girls would have run away if given the chance, and I don’t want to explain what could have happened then – a kidnapping, running away behind a car,” Maloney said.

Knowles was found guilty of child endangerment earlier this month. She will be sentenced on Wednesday and faces up to six months in prison.