In re A.C. CA2/6

FACTS

Chantel W. (Mother) and Terry C. (Father) are the parents of A.C.2 Mother has a long history with the HSA. Her parental rights to four other children had been terminated.

1 All statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. 2 The trial court also terminated Father's parental rights. Father does not contest the termination of his rights. He filed a brief, however, joining Mother in contesting the termination of her rights. For convenience, we refer to both parents collectively as Mother. A.C. was born in 2004. Based on the previous terminations of parental rights, HSA brought a dependency action for A.C. Mother complied with the service plan, and the dependency action was terminated in 2005. On March 21, 2010, five-year-old A.C. awoke to find Mother was not home. Frightened, she called 911 and reported Mother missing. When a police officer arrived, he searched the apartment and found no one else there. At about 9:00 a.m., police officers saw Mother and a male companion, Father, walking up the stairs to her apartment. The officers detained Father. Father said that Mother had picked him up in her car at about 4:00 a.m. They went to a friend's house,…