The mother of two toddlers found abandoned in Ukiah Wednesday afternoon had been arrested the day before for alleged domestic violence, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.
According to the MCSO, deputies responded to the 1700 block of North State Street in Ukiah shortly after 2 a.m. Aug. 2 for a report of a couple fighting, and located Sally M. Arellano, 36, of Covelo, and Edward “Two Feathers” Steele, 32, of Ukiah, standing in the parking lot of a closed business. The couple had reportedly been dating for the past several months.
After speaking with Arellano and Steele, deputies arrested Arellano on suspicion of domestic violence battery. According to the MCSO, Arellano told deputies that her children, a one-year-old boy and two-year-old boy, were at a motel approximately a half a mile away with a babysitter.
Arellano was booked into Mendocino County Jail, then released on bail at approximately 5 a.m. Aug. 3. Following her arrest, the MCSO reports that Steele (whom the MCSO said is not the boys’ father) had assumed care of the children from the babysitter, then on the morning of Aug. 3, he “left the children unattended near the railroad tracks near the 300 block of Brush Street in Ukiah.”
Around 4:50 a.m. Aug. 3, a concerned citizen called the MCSO to report seeing a man and two children walking on North State Street near Ford Road, but the subjects were not located by a responding deputy.
At about 1:22 p.m. Aug. 3, the MCSO reports being “contacted by a concerned parent regarding their two missing children who were left in the care of Steele at a hotel in the 1300 block of North State Street.”
Shortly before 4 p.m., a concerned citizen located the two-year-old abandoned and in distress in the 300 block of Brush Street, and law enforcement and medical personnel responded. At about 4:20 p.m., a Ukiah Police Officer found the one-year-old nearby, deceased.
The next day, Steele was located at the Hopland Rancheria after Hopland Tribal members reported seeing him. The MCSO reports that Steele was arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail.
An autopsy on the one-year-old was scheduled for Aug. 5. Reached Friday afternoon, MCSO spokesman Capt. Greg Van Patten said that the autopsy was still in progress, and that he was “awaiting the conclusion.”
