ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — "Yes, I've seen her before," said Joe Pepito, when shown a photo of his former neighbor, Aarin Stiles.
The St. Louis County mother is now charged with kidnapping her two-year-old son.
"At the end of the day, I just wasn't expecting, so it's shocking," said Pepito on Thursday.
Pepito says Stiles recently lived across the hallway from his apartment in north county.
"She would always seem unassuming, which is why like I said, I never assumed she was even doing anything what they're accusing her of," said Pepito.
According to court papers, the 29-year-old Stiles didn't have custody of her son.
Investigators said Stiles picked up her toddler from the North County Recreational Center on Redman Road on Sunday and refused to return him to his father, who has sole custody of the child.
Police said the child didn't have his daily medication and his father reported him missing.
"She would always come outside in a motorized scooter that had a basket," added Pepito. "That's why we have a ramp outside our building — that was made for her. She always had her son in the basket. I never saw anything out of the ordinary and the boy never really said anything to me."
Court documents further reveal that in August, a grand jury indicted Stiles on property damage charges during a separate incident in June.
Police said at that time, Stiles told them "she didn't have anyone to watch her son and she left him alone in her apartment."
Officers said when they went to the residence, the victim was located inside of a crib with no mattress with the metal supports exposed.
They said the toddler was sweaty and only wearing a diaper, and that "the apartment had an evident of cockroach infestation, moldy food in the sink, rotting food in the refrigerator, and the kitchen and bathroom sinks appeared not to be in working order." Police reported seeing "trash and urine on the floor."
"It's pretty sad. It just goes unnoticed because you just walk by these people everyday and you don't think anything's going on. If that's all true, I hope the child will be okay and won't remember it," added Pepito.
In a statement, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said "there are things you simply cannot do, and this defendant will be held accountable for her brazen disregard of the father's custodial rights and the court's order."
Prosecutors charged Aarin Stiles with parental kidnapping and child endangerment.
Thursday night, she remained in jail on a $250,000 cash only bond.