8-year-old girl left alone at Bush Airport after grandmother boarded plane to Honduras, police say

Euceda Letbia Maldonado, 51. (Houston Police Department)

HOUSTON – A woman has been charged after her young granddaughter was found alone at Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday, according to the Houston Police Department.

Euceda Letbia Maldonado, 51, was charged with abandoning a child with no intent to return.

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Police said the grandmother told her 8-year-old granddaughter to hang out at a restaurant in the ticketing lobby of Bush Airport and wait on her parents to pick her up. Maldonado then reportedly boarded a plane to Honduras.

Witnesses said they noticed the girl sitting by herself for a long time and called police.

Maldonado was identified as the girl’s grandmother and taken off the plane where she was arrested and charged.

She was booked into the Harris County Jail where she posted a $200 bond.

Maldonado appeared in court Thursday morning and will be back in court on Sept. 21, for an arraignment.

No information was released about the girl’s parents.


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