HOMESTEAD, Fla. – When Local 10 News asked Annie Pearson if she thought her daughter deserved to be arrested, she said "hell to the yeah."
A day later, the Homestead grandmother was angrily defending her daughter at Turner Guiford Knight Correctional Center. She shouted and pushed a Local 10 News journalist's camera.
Geneva Cythnia Pearson faces a charge of child neglect without bodily harm. She reported her 5-year-old daughter Geney missing Tuesday, and police said she should have known where she was.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was involved. Geney's aunt Shanta Hall said the little girl and her brother were going to be with family for the holiday season.
Pearson "has a big family and a very supportive family," Hall said. "What ever she is going through, we are going to help her with that situation."
Pearson had celebrated Christmas Eve Sunday.
"Church is where I need to be tonight," she said on a Facebook post. It was a check in at King Jesus International Ministry in South Miami-Dade Sunday for the church's Christmas service.
A December 5th picture of little Geney and a boy was also published on the Facebook account with a caption that reads "I have the best of both worlds" and hash tag "The Crew."
That picture was almost ruined. On Tuesday morning, Geney's daycare bus driver was honking. Homestead police said the little girl left the house on her own and got on the bus. Pearson thought the daycare was closed that day.
According to police relatives said the girl went missing about 9:30 a.m., and police didn't learn about it until about 1 p.m. Dozens were searching for little Geney, also known as Neya. Authorities issued an amber alert.
It wasn't until the day care bus driver returned to drop her off Tuesday afternoon that police learned that the girl had been safe all along.