Mental Illness, Boyfriend Blamed By Morgan Hill Mom Who Abandoned Daughter With Shoplifted Groceries

The mom who left her daughter with $150 worth of stolen groceries to flee eastward has excuses.

The police who tracked a Morgan Hill woman to a Nevada motel room followed a trail that began at a Safeway, where Marcy Keelin allegedly abandoned her 10-year-old daughter with $150 worth of stolen groceries.

 On the way back to California, Keelin, 38, treated police to a litany of apologies. But in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, she changed her tune slightly. 
 
Keelin on Tuesday blamed her ex-boyfriend and mental illness for the "misunderstanding" that led to her arrest, the newspaper reported. Her 10-year old daughter was left with the groceries while she went outside the Morgan Hill store to tend to another one of her five children, according to the newspaper.
 
Her boyfriend, Eldon Price, was outside smoking when she received a call from store officials and police that her daughter, who had since been found with the stolen foodstuffs, was going to be "put in a shelter," the newspaper reported.
 
"The whole time I'm like, 'Where the hell is my boyfriend at?''" Keelin told the newspaper.
 
Then, for some reason, she packed up with her 11-month-old child and headed back home to Rock Springs, Wyoming, where she'd lived with her husband until he was imprisoned for burglary, the newspaper reported. She was caught along the way in Nevada, the newspaper reported.
 
She'd due back in court Nov. 13. If convicted of all counts, she faces a maximum of three years, the newspaper reported.
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