The home in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where children were reportedly found living in dangerous conditions (WTAE/YouTube).
A mother and grandmother in rural Pennsylvania are accused of leaving the children they were supposed to care for in extremely unsafe conditions.
Heidi Lynn Beer, 35, and Leslie Ann Keller, 69, both stand charged with five felony counts of endangering the welfare of children as a parent or guardian. Beer also faces five misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of making a false report.
The women were both arrested on July 28 after Vandergrift Borough police in Westmoreland County arrived at a home due to a report of a fight. But they apparently ended up finding much more.
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There was a noticeable smell coming from the property, and, once inside, officers had to “avoid stepping on large feces droppings all over the residence, rotten food and urine pooled all over the floors,” according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE. Four children between ages 9 and 16 were said to have been inside, with the oldest telling police that their mother, Beer, had not been home in days.
The children reportedly had no water, and the shower spigot was broken off. “It was very obvious that water had not been on in a long time,” the affidavit stated, adding that the children”s beds were observed to be deflated air mattresses, and there were holes in the ceiling across the home.
Beer was not the children’s only guardian, authorities maintained, reporting that their grandmother, Keller, lived about a mile away and was aware of the lack of food and water at the kids’ home. One of the children said Keller had not gone inside the home in months because it was “too gross,” and she allegedly confirmed that the kids would fill up empty cat litter containers with water at her house because there was no water at theirs.
When she tried to chastise the 16-year-old girl for not cleaning up, a responding officer scolded the older woman, telling her it was not the “children’s responsibility to clean this absolute disgrace of a mess,” WTAE reported.
Police reportedly learned Beer had been staying with her boyfriend in Pittsburgh – about a 50-minute drive away – and that he had asked her to leave them behind because he could “give her a new and better life without them.” He was also allegedly abusive to the children.
Beer is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on a $20,000 bond. She has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Aug. 12.
Keller has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 9. It is unclear if she is being held in jail. The children are reportedly in the care of other family members.
