TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif — A mother and her boyfriend were arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse after a passerby discovered her three children had been left in the desert as punishment, according the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Mary Bell, 34 and Gary Cassle, 29, of Twentynine Palms were being held Thursday at the Morongo Basin Jail in Joshua Tree, Calif., in lieu of $100,000 bail, and are scheduled to appear Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court.

Around 11:30 a.m. PT Wednesday, deputies responded to a report of three children — a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy — at the edge of Twentynine Palms. Bell and Cassle were “down the road from the children,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman said.

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Heat waves distort the appearance of a car when the temperature reaches 119 degrees and rising as a heat wave spreads across the American West on June 30, 2013, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (Photo: David McNew, Getty Images)