Police: OKC Mom Leaves Daughter Outside, Gives Her E-Cigarette

An Oklahoma City mother faces child neglect charges after police say she left her young daughter outside in the cold, and gave her an e-cigarette to smoke so she would stop talking.

At about 9 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to an apartment in the 4900 block of S. Walker to do a welfare check. A neighbor told police a 7-year-old child had returned home from school at about 3:15 p.m. and no one would answer the door to her apartment.

The neighbor told police that the girl comes to her place all the time because the mother, 46-year-old Daphne Steen, is never there when the girl returns home. The neighbor said Steen sometimes leaves the child at the neighbor's apartment when she goes to the casino.

In order to check on the welfare of Steen, an officer entered the apartment through an open window. Steen was then found lying on her bed. She said she was in deep sleep due to all the medications she was taking and did not hear the knock on the door.

Steen was then arrested on child neglect charges.

The child also told police that Steen had recently given her an e-cigarette to smoke to stop her from talking.

The girl was released into her father's custody.