A couple police say left three children under the age of five alone in a LaPorte hotel room Saturday night to attend a wedding reception faces child neglect charges. Police there responded to the Best Western early Sunday morning and found that three children, ages 2, 3 and five, had been left in a third floor room alone. A hotel guest told officers she heard a child crying for more than half an hour and screaming for its mother. She alerted hotel staff when it seemed nobody was in the room to comfort the child. The hotel manager was watching the crying child when police arrived, according to the incident report. Police officers found the parents at a wedding event downstairs. They told the officers the children were all asleep when they left and said they had only planned to be gone a short time to visit with friends. The investigation has been turned over to child protective services.
