Police search for Texas mother who left two children alone at home for two months

Police are searching for a Texas mother who abandoned her 12-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son for two months.

An arrest warrant has been issued by the Roman Forest Police Department for mother Raven Yates, who is charged with two counts of abandoning/endangering a child without the intent to return, the department said.

Police said they received a phone call from the concerned father of the 12-year-old on Nov. 14 who reported that the two children had been home alone since Sept. 28, 2022. 

During the weeks they spent alone at home, the siblings allegedly had limited access to food or medicine.

The father, who lived and worked in California, immediately flew to Texas, police said. He told law enforcement that Yates had been spotted in Mobile, Alabama, without the children by his former mother-in-law, police told ABC News.

He realized the children had been left home alone after his daughter asked him to send them food regularly. 

The father alerted police and met them at the house where the two children were staying.

There was no food on the shelves or in the fridge, but the kids appeared healthy.

?I guess the 12-year-old was very resourceful. But she shouldn?t have had to do that,? police said.

The children were not registered in school, police said.

The two children are safe with their grandmother in Alabama, cops said. 

Investigators discovered that weeks before Yates left her children behind, she had reported that a third, 14-year-old child had run away from home.

The child was able to make it to their grandmother?s house as well.

Yates is believed to still be in the Mobile area, police said. The Mobile Police Department is assisting Roman Forest Police with the investigation. 

They have not been able to locate Yates since an arrest warrant was first issued on Dec. 6.