3 children taken to hospital after being left alone in motel room for 3 days

PITTSBURGH — A woman is facing charges after she allegedly left her three children at a hotel for three days, a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said.

Police and Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families officials were called Sunday to the Days Inn on Banksville Road to check on the children, who range in age from 8 months to 3 years old.

Two people told police that they were watching the children while their mother, Tabatha Graczyk, was out. Police said Graczyk never returned to get them.

According to a criminal complaint, the children did not have any food or extra diapers. They were taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC to be evaluated.

Channel 11 News has learned that CYF had been trying to find the children for about a month because of complaints of neglect.

Graczyk is charged with endangering the welfare of children.

Graczyk allegedly told police that she and her boyfriend rented the room for five days and asked another couple to watch her young children while she looked for a new place to live. Authorities said officers showed up at the motel Sunday when they got an anonymous tip that the children were alone and that Gracyzk was on a drug binge.

Attorney Phil DiLucente has handled many cases involving neglected children. He said the children are almost always reunited with their parents even after horrible crimes are committed.

“It can happen in a nanosecond so long as that judge sees that are the requirements were being followed of her probation,” he said.

Gracyzk is currently on probation after pleading guilty to a 2014 incident where one of her children overdosed on her methadone that was left out in her West Homestead home.

"The goal is to always have the child back with the mother. The real issue is, is the mother capable of raising and rearing these children?" DiLucente said.

Police said in the most recent incident all of Gracyzk’s children were found wearing dirty diapers and two of them had burn marks on their hands.

Her children are all once again in CYF’s custody.

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Cox Media Group