Stanhope mom faces multiple charges after leaving child alone for weeks

Mother faces up to 20 years if convicted of child endangerment, By Jane Primerano Stanhope - A word scrawled in the concrete sidewalk. A broken windshield on a truck. Were these acts of vandalism, or cries for help from a young girl left alone in a sweltering apartment in last month? Lisa Sylvester, 27, remains in the Sussex County Jail on $52,500 bond, charged with second-degree child endangerment and fourth-degree child neglect after her 13-year-old daughter was found living by herself in a second-floor apartment with no electricity. Ralph Stone rented Sylvester one of two apartments above his Stanhope auto parts store. He had started eviction procedures, because Sylvester was behind in the rent, but she had assured him she was applying for assistance, he said in a telephone interview. Not long after that, mysterious acts of vandalism started happening around the store, and the neighbors in the other apartment complained about the smell of a dirty litter box. Stone kept telling the girl he needed to see her mother. After speaking to the girl three times, he put the pieces together and realized the mother wasn’t around. “The girl was crying for help. She tossed garbage bags out the window. I found the word ‘help’ scratched in the sidewalk … When I found the windshield broken on one of the trucks, that got my attention,” he said, referring to the fleet of red cars and trucks with the Van Gendren Auto Parts logo that are used for deliveries. “I saw there was no power to the apartment. I called Division of Youth and Family Services, but I got not response, so I called Stanhope Police Department. They called DYFS and an officer went with the social worker to talk to the girl. When they reached the apartment, the door was unlocked, but the girl wouldn’t open it. Sergeant Rob Schellhammer of the Stanhope police said the police tried to contact the mother but couldn’t, so they called DYFS. “Officer Ryan Hickman went to the apartment with DYFS,” he said. “She was hiding under the bed, but Officer Hickman coaxed her out, advising her she wasn’t in any trouble. She had been told not to open the door to anyone.” Later, when Officer Hickman and the social worker interviewed the young girl, she told them that her mother came by to drop off money from time to time. She would walk to a nearby pizzeria and buy pizzas when she could. Hickman said the condition of the apartment was deplorable and the temperature was about 90 degrees, but the girl was not obviously suffering from malnutrition or any other ailments. Lisa Sylvester works at an automobile dealership in Madison, Morris County, about 25 miles from her Stanhope home, according to information gathered by the Associated Press (AP). Hickman said she denied she had abandoned her daughter, but blamed repeated car trouble for her failure to return home on a regular basis. DYFS took the girl for placement with friends of the family, according to the AP. Neither Stone nor the local police had knowledge of any family, including the girl’s father, in the area. Schellhammer said the two cats were taken by the Hopatcong Animal Shelter to be held until they are reclaimed or placed in a new home. Stone said he never had any problems in the six years Sylvester rented the apartment, until recently. “The little girl basically grew up here,” he said. Sylvester was charged with the endangerment and neglect offenses when it was determined she allegedly left the child mostly alone for nearly a month. The penalty for second-degree child endangerment is five to 20 years, although the normal sentence is five to 10, Schellhammer said. The penalty for fourth-degree neglect is 10 months to five years, he said.