Texas mom arrested after 2-year-old wandered from home to ‘get her nails done’

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By Darla Guillen, Chron.com / Houston Chronicle

Published 10:30 am, Monday, March 27, 2017

Photo: Wichita Falls Sheriff’s Office

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Shareka Shanta Allen, 35.

>>Click to see Texas parents who’ve been arrested or charged in crimes.

Shareka Shanta Allen, 35.

>>Click to see Texas parents who’ve been arrested or charged in crimes.

Photo: Wichita Falls Sheriff’s Office

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Here are some examples of questionable parenting skills from stories that have made headlines in recent years.

Scroll through to find some of the most troubling cases of parents who have run afoul of the law. less

Here are some examples of questionable parenting skills from stories that have made headlines in recent years.

Scroll through to find some of the most troubling cases of parents who have run afoul of the … more

Photo: James Nielsen, Houston Chronicle

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Rachel Lynn Lehnardt avoided jail time after pleading guilty to six charges after she held a naked Twister party with alcohol and drugs for her child and several minors in 2015. The Georgia mother was sentenced … more

Photo: White, Tyler L, Screengrab/Courtesy Photo

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Tonya Couch, the mother of “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch, was indicted on May 26, 2016 on a charge of hindering apprehension and a charge of money laundering. The mother helped her son flee to Mexico while he was on probation for a fatal drunk driving wreck in 2013 that killed four people.

Photo: Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press

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Brook Ashley Wise, a 25-year-old Harlingen, Texas woman, was charged with injury to a child, a second-degree felony, after her one-year-old daughter fell out of a two-story window May 8, 2016. The child … more

Photo: Harlingen Police Department

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Tennessee mother Shanynthia Gardner was charged with cutting the throats of her three daughters and one son, all younger than 5, on July 1, 2016. The 29-year-old will undergo a mental health evaluation to determine if she can stand trial, while her lawyer thinks she suffers from a mental disability.

Photo: Jim Weber

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Troopers arrested Grafton, New York man Michael A. Boomhower, 47, and charged him with third-degree assault and criminal obstruction of breathing after an alleged fight between him and his daughter. Boomhower allegedly choked and slapped his daughter and threw her to the floor.

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Cheryl Reed, 30, is the mother of two young children who were found chained and leashed outside a San Antonio home in April 2016. She was charged with two counts of injury to a child. Reed, along with Deandre … more

Photo: Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News, Staff Photographer

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Porucha Phillips, 34, was charged with a third-degree felony count of injury to a child by omission resulting in bodily injury and another resulting in serious bodily injury after allegedly leaving eight … more

Photo: TOM REEL, STAFF / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Deandre Dorch, 36, was accused of Injury to a Child by Omission. Dorch is the father of several children found unattended inside a San Antonio home in April 2016. Dorch and his wife Porucha Phillips were … more

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Maryland mother Narges Shafeirad plead guilty on July 28, 2016 to killing her 5-year-old son in 2015 by forcing him to swallow a lethal amount of cold medicine before setting her car on fire and staging a crash. She faces up to 50 years in prison at her sentencing in December 2016.

Read more: Maryland woman pleads guilty to poisoning her son, burning his body
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Photo: Montgomery County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office

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Kris Smith, 23, was arrested on Aug. 2, 2016, in San Antonio after allegedly scalding her 3-year-old son with hot water after he soiled his pants. The boy’s 33-year-old father did not take him to the … more

Photo: Courtesy Bexar County

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Amy Gonzalez Rodiles, a 34-year-old Frisco woman, was charged with two counts of driving while intoxicated — with child passenger, after she allegedly driving into a pond with her two children.

Read more: … more

Photo: Frisco Police Department

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Police said Deborah Vitt, 38, critically injured a boy after drunkenly crashing into another vehicle in a middle school drop-off line in Carrollton. Vitt faces three felony charges.

Read more: Police: Child … more

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Photo: Bexar County Sheriff’s Office

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This booking photo provided by the Pinellas County Jail shows John Jonchuck. The 25-year-old faces a first-degree murder charge after throwing his 5-year-old daughter off a bridge on the approach to the Sunshine Skyway, early Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015.

Photo: HOPD

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Michael Wayne Livesay, 27, was charged with a first-degree felony of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury or death after the drowning of his 3-month-old daughter.

Read more: Police: Texas man falls … more

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Photo: James Nielsen, Staff

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Photo: Courtesy Of Fairfield Police Dep

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Melissa Martinez, 40, is charged with two counts of manufacturing/delivery of a controlled substance and one count of purchasing/furnishing alcohol to a minor in the 183rd State District Court. Her son, Eddie M. Herrera, 18, was previously arrested and charged with aggravated assault in the 183rd State District Court. He is accused for his role in the death of his girlfriend, Jacqueline Gomez, 17, of Houston.

Photo: Houston Police

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Fabiola Lopez, 21, is charged with capital murder for allegedly killing her 10-month-old son. She gave birth to another baby one day after being arrested on the capital murder charge.

Read more: South Texas … more

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Mandy Wells, 32, faces a felony charge of delivery of marijuana to a child and a Class A misdemeanor charge of furnishing alcohol to a minor for providing those items to about eight children at a sleepover … more

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A Texas woman faces charges of abandoning or endangering a child after her daughter was found wandering Wichita Falls, Texas streets alone.

The child was found “dirty, hungry and had her shirt on backwards with her shoes untied” on Jan. 30, and told the stranger who found her that she’d dressed herself and left her home to “get her nails done,” the Times Record News reported.

ARRESTED: Texas woman allegedly offered to sell son for $1,500 to man she accused of sexually abusing him

The mother, Shareka Shanta Allen, 35, told police that she’d left the young girl with her sibling. Authorities found the child’s siblings gave false statements to detectives. According to the Times Record News, they’ve also been involved in several “Child Protective Services investigations, including assaults, sexual assaults and possession of marijuana cases. In some of those investigations.”

As of Friday, Allen remained in Wichita County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

Abandonment charges stem from the amount of time that elapsed since the child had left the home before being found by a stranger and taken to a nearby middle school so that police could be contacted.