A Florida mother is facing four felony charges after allegedly abandoning her four young children — including a 2-month-old infant — to take a three-day vacation on a cruise ship to the Bahamas.
Nathalie Belizaire, 29, was charged with four counts of child neglect after she boarded Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Conquest, leaving her children unattended in her North Miami Beach residence. Police said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers took her into custody Monday as she disembarked.
"You cannot make this up," Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer said in Tuesday court footage. "We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids.
"Who leaves four little kids alone to go on a cruise?
"The poor kids were home alone."
The children were discovered by police Saturday, the day after the ship set sail. Bodycam footage showed four kids coming out of hiding in a bathroom – a 2-year-old toddler, a pre-teen and what appeared to be a teenage girl holding a newborn baby.
Lether Bazile, the father of the 2-month-old, told police that Belizaire claimed she was leaving the children with their great-grandmother, Department of Children and Families can investigate. She faces four felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm. Bond was set at $10,000, $2,500 per child.
This recent arrest is not Belizaire's first run-in with the law. She previously faced aggravated battery charges in January 2025 after allegedly pepper-spraying a neighbor in the face during a dispute regarding her daughter, the Post reported.