JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A 2-year-old left alone in an Arlington apartment for nearly three weeks after her mother was jailed is recovering from malnutrition.

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Sheriff Rutherford Describes How Child Survived

Police said she survived by eating mustard, ketchup and raw pasta, and was watching cartoons when found by her father. The child was naked, with dried food all over her. Urine and feces was found throughout the apartment.

The child, whose name has not been released, was in good condition Tuesday at Wolfson Children's Hospital, said David Foreman, a hospital spokesman.

"She's sitting up in the bed and laughing and playing with the nurses," Foreman said.

The mother, Dakeysha Telita Lee (pictured, left), 22, was jailed Sept. 10 in a separate case. She was charged Monday with child abuse for leaving the child alone in her apartment, police said.

Ogden Lee, who is separated from the girl's mother and seeking a divorce, said he had been trying to contact the two for weeks.

When a manager let him into the Spicewood Springs apartment, the youngster was lying in a baby's bathtub with a towel pulled over her and was watching a TV cartoon channel, he said. She was filthy and covered with dried ketchup, Lee said.

"She grabbed me and wouldn't let go of me," Lee told The Florida Times-Union. "It is really a miracle how good a shape my daughter is in. I don't know how she did it."

Lee, 33, said the girl had dragged the food, toys and other things into her mother's bedroom, where he found her.

The mother was at Duval County's Montgomery Correctional facility on charges of aggravated assault and petit theft for an incident Sept. 8 at a nail salon where she was a regular customer. She made a first appearance on the child abuse charges Tuesday, represented by a public defender, but made no comment.

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Regency-Area Neighbors Shocked

Ogden Lee said he did not know until Sunday that his estranged wife had been arrested. He said he talked to her by telephone at the jail Sunday and was told his daughter was with neighbors, but not which neighbor.

Lee said he spent Sunday night knocking on neighbors' doors, then got a manager to open the door to his wife's apartment, where he found the child.

"It was the worst that I can imagine," he said. "I don't know how to describe it."

The couple, separated for a year, is in the process of getting a divorce, Lee said.

Lee told her husband she had left the child with a babysitter, but couldn't provide a name. Police found no indication an adult had been caring for the child.

"Over those 19 days, she remained alone at home. She managed to get into the refrigerator and literally empty the entire bottom half of the refrigerator," Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said. "There was also a pantry that she had managed to open the door to. She actually tore the label off a couple cans of corn, trying to get into the cans."

A family friend who didn't want to give her name told Channel 4's Jennifer Waugh that she can't imagine how this happened.

"She's a very sweet little girl -- fun to be around," Sharee Arrington said. "The way I picture her and her child -- they were close. I never though she'd leave that baby in the house by herself."

Patricia Mallon, district manager for administrative services for the Department of Children & Families in Jacksonville, said Tuesday the DCF is reviewing the child's situation to determine where she should be placed.

"The child is safe in our care," Mallon said. "Our every effort is to ensure her safety and well being as we do with all the children in our care."

Neighbors contacted by Channel 4 were shocked when they learned what happened.

"That's disgusting," neighbor Cheryl Banks said. "Nobody knew? Nobody said anything?"