Video Shows Hialeah Officers Finding Chained 13-Year-Old

On November 9, 2026, newly released body-camera footage showed Hialeah officers arriving at a home near West 63rd Street and Fourth Avenue, where a 13-year-old girl had been chained to a fence. The girl’s face is blurred in the video as officers speak with a woman and photograph the scene.

Police identified the girl’s mother as 34-year-old Yashira Maldonado. Investigators said surveillance footage showed Maldonado fastening a metal chain around her daughter’s waist and then driving away. The girl was left at an efficiency where her great-grandmother lived.

The great-grandmother found the girl and called 911, but could not free her from the chain. The girl’s father, who was away from home, also called police after learning what had happened. He told a dispatcher that his former mother-in-law had found his daughter abandoned and chained.

Police said Maldonado had been fired from her job on July 11, then silenced her phone and went home to lie in bed and watch television. The girl remained chained in the July heat for more than an hour. Authorities said she was in good health when found. Photos from the scene showed the chain, along with the child’s backpack and shoes.

Maldonado was arrested in July and charged with felony child abuse and child neglect. She has since been released on bond.