Mom Sentenced After Abandoning Disabled Daughter Strapped to Stroller to Die in Closet: Police

Alondra Hobbs, 29, was convicted on two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children after pleading guilty, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, as reported by Atlanta CBS affiliate WANF.

During the sentencing portion of her court hearing, Hobbs’ attorney said, according to Law & Crime, “She does not want me to make excuses for what she’s done. She does not want a trial. She wants to take responsibility, something that she has not done … It is something she wishes to do now.”

The DeKalb County Police Department responded to a call in unincorporated Decatur on June 25, 2023, where a man says he found a dead child in a closet inside of an empty apartment. The man reported smelling a foul odor before discovering the body, according to Crime Online.

When officers arrived, they found the body of 7-year-old Alivia Jordan strapped into a stroller, per the DA’s office. They did a little digging and discovered that her mother, Hobbs, had moved out of the apartment about four months prior.

The man who claimed to have called police, but chose to remain unidentified, told NBC affiliate WXIA at the time that the victim “looked like a real mummy,” but “you could tell it was a young girl by what she had on and by her hair.”

The man told the news outlet that he found the door to the apartment “wide open” that day, and it was when he got closer that he became overwhelmed by the smell. He said that inside he found the lights off and the house still filled with furniture and personal items as if someone had “left in a hurry.”

He said he then noticed the child when he saw a human arm hanging out of the closet. “I had to stand there for like a minute or two before I realized what it was,” he told WXIA. “It’s a dead child.”

After Hobbs was apprehended by police five days later, she allegedly admitted that she’d moved out months ago and left her daughter behind, purportedly telling them she had done so because her life was “too much,” per the DA’s office.

Hobbs told authorities that Jordan was autistic, per WANF, while medical records reviewed by the news outlet revealed she also suffered from cerebral palsy-related seizures.

An arrest warrant reviewed by Law & Crime alleged that Hobbs had left her daughter strapped to a stroller in that closet “with no intention of returning.”

Eventually, per Law & Crime, Hobbs allegedly admitted to police that her daughter was still alive when she was pushed into the closet and left there. She purportedly said, per prosecutors in court, “she did what she did to Alivia or she was going to kill herself.”

“This is a very tragic case. There are always options,” said the judge, per Law & Crime. “There’s very rare cases where a murder case does not involve a weapon — a physical weapon — and sometimes hands are a physical weapon. And it’s difficult. How do you process that?”

Suggesting that they believed Hobbs had no remorse for abandoning her daughter to die, the prosecution noted that she continued to cash her daughter’s $900 monthly disability checks, per Law & Crime.

They also noted that she started “dating immediately” after leaving Jordan behind. When she was cheated on in that relationship, she purportedly told investigators that that day was the “worst day of her life.”

All the while, neighbors and relatives were reportedly telling police that Hobbs had begun to tell them that her daughter was staying with her father and his family. Talking with Fox affiliate WAGA shortly after Jordan’s body was found, the victim’s aunt said, “We had no clue.”

“The baby was supposed to be with the dad’s mom in Albany,” she continued. “That’s what she kept telling us, but she was here staying with my sister. She was staying in the back with a guy.”

Prosecutors also brought up when investigators asked Hobbs if she wanted her daughter to have a funeral, with the defendant’s apparent response being that she didn’t care because no one had ever helped to raise her.

“Alivia Jordan did not deserve the slow, painful and lonely death she suffered at the hands of her mother,” said DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston. “I extend my deepest condolences to her family, and I hope that they take some comfort in knowing Alondra Hobbs is being held accountable for her actions.”

If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.