Mom accused of giving daughter away to her drug dealer
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MOORE, Oklahoma (KOCO) — An Oklahoma mom was let out on bond after she allegedly gave her 2-year-old daughter to a man selling her drugs.
That little girl has been missing for two years.
Ashley Rowland, 39, was booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on a $3,000 bond. A judge was in the process of raising that bond to $100,000, but she was let out before that paperwork was processed.
She was arrested last week for child abandonment after the Moore Police Department said she admitted to giving her child to a man selling her meth.
She was released on Tuesday morning, but court records from that same day show that a judge ordered Rowland to post a $100,000 bond to be released.
KOCO 5 reached out to the judge. His office said the paperwork wasn’t complete in time, and an arrest warrant will be issued for Rowland.
Rowland would have to be taken back into custody then post that higher bond he ordered.
Child advocates said she shouldn’t have been booked on that low of a bond in the first place.
“Far too many of these kids fall through the cracks,” Joe Dorman, CEO of Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, said. “They need to do what they can to make sure that she is detained and assisting in trying to locate this child.”
Rowland told police she hasn’t seen her daughter since April 2022, and that she gave the child to a man named “Carlos,” who may be in Mexico, according to court documents.
“After two years, you just don’t know. The fact this went unreported – where were family members? Where were neighbors?” Dorman said. “Anybody who suspected this child was in danger, by law, was supposed to pick up the phone and make that call.”
Documents said the investigation began in April 2023, when Oklahoma Human Services was asked to pick the child up, but she couldn’t be found.
More than one year later, police said they are actively searching for her. She would now be 5 years old.
“If a child is missing, there need to be alerts issued. You need to issue an Amber Alert. Do what you can. Figure out the way to age the child from the last known photo, if there is a photo,” Dorman said. “The stories you hear on these cases, there’s never a good outcome. No matter what happens, the child, if found, is going to undergo years of therapy at best.”
The Oklahoma City Police Department is assisting the Moore Police Department with the case.
KOCO 5 has asked for the name of the child, a picture or something that could help find her. Police said they aren’t releasing that.