Tehachapi Mother Arrested After Leaving Child in Vacant Field Overnight
TEHACHAPI — A 34-year-old mother was arrested on Sunday after allegedly abandoning her two-year-old child in a vacant field in downtown Tehachapi.
Stacey Nikkel, of Tehachapi was booked into the Sherriff’s Central Receiving Jail in Bakersfield on charges of child endangerment, child abandonment and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Her bail has been set at $20,000.
According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the chain of events began at about 9:45 a.m. on June 15, when deputies were called to meet with a Tehachapi Police Officer who had found two year old child in a vacant field, near the north side of the roadway of Cherry Lane, near Sage Lane in Tehachapi.
“A passerby discovered the child, seated in a stroller that was tipped over and left unattended,” said Kern County Sheriff’s Sergeant Doug Wilson. “Investigators believe the child was alone in the stroller from about 10:30 p.m. on June 14, to around 9 a.m. the next morning.”
During the investigation it was also determined that Nikkel was the child’s mother, and after she was found, she was taken into custody.
Authorities said, that the unidentified child was not any way physically harmed, and after being checked out, was taken into protective custody and transported the Jamison Center Children’s Center in nearby Bakersfield.
Read more:
KERO: Passerby finds 2-year-old in a tipped stroller in a field near Tehachapi
