Published Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Herald Staff Writer
A Sharon woman is facing a charge of endangering the welfare of children after she left her two daughters home alone for six days, police said.
Deborah A. Rust, 42, of 337 Andrew St., was served a warrant at 5:47 p.m. Saturday at the Sharon police station.
Ms. Rust was supposed to appear for arraignment Monday at District Justice James E. McMahon's office in Sharon. As of 3 p.m. Monday, she had not yet appeared.
Police were notified that Ms. Rust had disappeared after her 9-year-old daughter told a guidance counselor at West Hill Elementary School that she was staying with a woman on Madison Street, and she hadn't seen or talked to her mother in days.
According to the affidavit of probable cause:
Ms. Rust's 14-year-old daughter came home from school on Dec. 13 and Ms. Rust was there. The girl left and when she came home her mother was asleep, so she went to sleep as well.
When the girl awoke, her mother was gone, and the girl assumed she went Christmas shopping.
Ms. Rust never came home.
On Dec. 14 or 15, Ms. Rust's boyfriend, John Malgieri, brought food to the house, put it on the counter and left.
Malgieri took the 14-year-old girl to Super 8 Motel in Shenango Township the night of Dec. 16, and the next day he took both girls to school.
Police don't have an address or phone number for Malgieri, and he had checked out of the motel by the time police found out he had stayed there.
Although the 14-year-old girl was taking care of herself she appeared healthy, clean and fed, but she was concerned about her mother, the affidavit said.
School officials notified Mercer County Children and Youth Services, which was unable to locate Ms. Rust as of Thursday. The girls were placed in the custody of their father,, Donald Rust.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Kristen Garrett at kgarrett@sharonherald.com