Missouri mother is accused of abandoning girl, 4, at a truck stop then telling police she had NO daughter

Kayla Marie Christensen, a Missouri mother of three, left her four-year-old daughter alone in the car park of Love's Travel Stop near Neosho at around 3am on 23 October, then fled the scene. When officers caught up with her, she denied the child was hers, insisting she had only two sons. Her boys were found unrestrained inside her vehicle, along with syringes and suspected drug paraphernalia.

Christensen later left the two boys alone in her car while she gambled at a casino in Wyandotte, Kansas.

She faces charges of first-degree child abandonment, two counts of first-degree child endangerment, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, and three counts of failing to restrain a child.

Staff at the travel stop kept the four-year-old calm and safe in the car park until police arrived.