Mother charged, accused of abandoning disabled daughter who was found after 9 days in towed car

KING COUNTY, Wash. — A mother is now facing charges for abandoning her 28-year-old daughter inside of an impounded car for nine days, according to the King County Prosecuting Office.

Claudine Williams, 45, has been charged with abandonment of a dependent person. A warrant has been issued for her arrest and she is scheduled to be in court on May 10. If she isn’t arrested by May 10, the warrant will be extended until an arrest is made, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Court documents state Williams was her 28-year-old daughter’s primary caregiver. Family members told detectives the 28-year-old woman has cerebral palsy, the cognitive abilities of a 2-year-old, and is unable to walk, eat, and drink without assistance, according to court documents.

The woman was hospitalized with severe dehydration, hypothermia, an acute kidney injury, and hypernatremia, according to court documents.

A doctor who treated the woman said she could have died from her injuries, according to court documents. The doctor also noted that because the victim was hospitalized, “they were able (to) treat her for her seizure disorder with medication. (The doctor) said that (the woman) no longer twitches, rolls her eyes, or has other symptoms from her seizures,” court documents state.

As of Saturday, April 30, the whereabouts of Williams are unknown and “she is believed to be homeless,” according to court documents. Kent detectives were able to speak with Williams in March, where she “admitted she uses ‘clear’ (methamphetamine) and smokes a couple of times a day,” according to court documents.

Williams also told detectives in March that “her brother was supposed to pick the car up with (her daughter) inside,” according to court documents.

Records show Williams was arrested on February 6, a day after her car was towed with her daughter inside. Court documents state that from jail, she never tried to call anyone about her daughter, and she never asked any gas station clerks for help in finding her daughter.

“Claudine said it wasn’t like she didn’t care, she just didn’t know what to do,” a detective stated in court documents.

Williams was receiving $4,815.36 per month from July 2021 to February 2022 to be her daughter’s caretaker, according to documents obtained by Kent detectives from the Developmental Disabilities Administration of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.

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