Mother of Missing Girl Charged With Endangerment

The Pomona mother of a missing 3-year-old and her live-in boyfriend were charged Tuesday with felony child endangerment after police found a small amount of marijuana in a closed herbal shop where authorities say the family lived in unsafe conditions.

The 19-year-old mother, Simona Denise Demery, gave birth to a 7-pound, 3-ounce girl Tuesday afternoon in the jail ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, authorities said. The newborn was placed in protective custody, said Victoria Pipkin, a district attorney’s spokeswoman.

Police halted their search of the park where Demery’s daughter, Alicia Versluis, disappeared Sunday and are pursuing other leads. Authorities also have custody of Alicia’s twin sister.

Investigators said Demery and Jeffrey Jones, 24, lived with the twins in the storefront that had no running water. The home had three mattresses on the floor and scarcely any furniture, police said. Marijuana was found near where the girls slept, Pipkin said. Electrical wires zigzagged across the room.

The family apparently relied upon a hot plate and an ice chest for a kitchen, police said. The only food authorities found was a partial loaf of bread and half-full jar of peanut butter. The family’s puppy, a small mixed breed, had defecated on the floor. Burglar bars and newspapers covered the storefront windows.

After inspecting the premises, Pomona police Monday arrested Jones and Demery, who was seven months’ pregnant, saying the makeshift home was unfit for children.

“It’s a place I definitely would not want my kids living in,” said Sgt. Jerry Wright. “It wasn’t like a cardboard box but it was a far sight from where I’d stay.”

The building is in the 800 block of West Holt Avenue, a predominantly commercial area. It is next to a Spanish bakery on a block with an empty lot, a coin laundry, cocktail lounge and a tiny market. The neighborhood is known for prostitution and gangs. Police have said Demery and Jones paid rent to live in the space.

Alicia Versluis vanished from a crowded park a few miles away about 12:20 p.m. Sunday. She was last seen playing near the picnic area by the pool in Ganesha Park. The mother told police she read briefly and, when she looked up, Alicia was gone. Alicia’s twin sister Ebony remained.

Police have been unable to confirm Demery’s account that the two girls had accompanied her to the park.

“All we can say is we’re still looking for the little girl,” Wright said. “We’re still hoping to find her.”

The twins’ biological father is driving from Utah in hopes of gaining custody of Ebony, Wright said.

Demery and Jones are being held on $200,000 bail. They were each charged with two felony counts of child endangerment, which carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, according to the district attorney’s office. They are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Pomona Superior Court. Demery has no previous criminal record; Jones has a criminal history but not one related to child endangerment, said Sgt. Joann Crabb.

Alicia, who is black, is about 2 feet tall, 23 pounds and had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a gray sweatshirt, gray sweat pants, a white T-shirt and pink and white Nike tennis shoes, according to her mother.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call Pomona police at (909) 620-2155.

Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this story.