Sheriff: Couple left 11-year-old son home alone for weeks

ELFRIDA, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona couple has been arrested after they left their 11-year-old son home alone for two weeks, authorities said.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office arrested the couple last week after they returned to their home in Elfrida, about 100 miles southeast of Tucson. The mother left the state before Thanksgiving and the father left a few days after the holiday, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies visited the home Dec. 12 after a caller said the boy may have been left alone, according to the sheriff’s office Facebook page. Deputies were unable to reach the parents, and the boy was placed in foster care. He told authorities he had frozen food in the refrigerator and did not go to school for at least two weeks.

Both parents, a 34-year-old mother and 40-year-old father, have been indicted on charges of child neglect, the sheriff’s office said. Both remained jailed on Tuesday, according to online jail records.

The Associated Press is not identifying them to protect the identity of the boy.