TUCKER Toddlers - 3 and 4 yo - / Accused: Mark David Tucker and Kathy Lee Tucker Lake Butler FL

May 10, 2011

Couple Arrested for Child Neglect

25-year-old Mark David Tucker and 26-year-old Kathy Lee Tucker have been arrested on charges of child neglect after Union County deputies discovered the pair had left two young children alone in a tent while they went off to a methadone clinic in Gainesville.

Union County officials say the couple is also accused of coming home late so they could sell their blood.

Lake Butler couple accused of leaving preschoolers alone in tent



Mark David Tucker, 25, and his wife, Kathy Lee Tucker, 26, were charged with
child neglect after Union County sheriff's officials determined they left daughters,
ages 3 and 4, in this tent in Lake Butler while making a trip to a Gainesville
methadone clinic. (Photos courtesy of Union County Sheriff's Office)

May 11, 2011

A Lake Butler couple was arrested on charges of child neglect after investigators determined they left two preschool daughters alone in a tent while they went to a methadone clinic in Gainesville.

The couple is also accused of delaying their return home by a couple of hours so they could sell their plasma. A witness said the couple told her they left a dog with the preschoolers to protect them.

Mark David Tucker, 25, and his wife, Kathy Lee Tucker, 26, were each charged with child neglect when they were arrested Monday by the Union County Sheriff's Office.

The case against the Tuckers began when a woman who knows the couple and rides a transport van with them to the methadone clinic began asking them about their three children. According to the witness, the Tuckers said their 5-year-old daughter had gone to school but their 3- and 4-year-old daughters had remained at the tent where the family has been living off Northwest State Road 100.

The witness also told deputies that she noticed the Tuckers were not lining up to get on the van for a ride back to Lake Butler.

Instead, they told the witness they would return home later in the day after they sold their plasma at a donation center in Gainesville.

Deputies said the witness convinced the van driver to take her back to the property where the Tuckers had been living with their daughters. The witness found the two younger girls wandering around the woods nearby the tent while wearing their pajamas. One of the little girls had lost a shoe.

Deputies said the witness took the girls to her home, where she fed them and gave them something to drink because they said they were hungry and thirsty. The witness also called deputies, who contacted the state abuse registry to get the Department of Children and Families involved in the case.

Deputy Carl Hanlon said he found the tent behind a mobile home that appeared be undergoing repairs but had running water and working electrical service. In his report on the case, Hanlon wrote that it appeared four people had been living in a tent behind the mobile home near a fire pit and a picnic table.

Hanlon spoke with two of the children's grandparents who told him the Tuckers would sometimes drop the children off without their knowledge. One grandparent said they had told the Tuckers they were unable to care for the little girls for health reasons. A grandparent also told Hanlon the Tuckers had previously left the children unattended while they went to the methadone clinic.

Kathy and Mark Tucker were arrested, according to Sheriff Jerry Whitehead, who also said his deputies worked with the Department of Children and Family to move the “children involved to a safer environment with other family members."