SOTUH FAYETTE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two former South Fayette Township daycare workers pleaded guilty in court to misdemeanor child endangerment charges.
Heather Habovick and Kelli Verdu were arrested last June after a local grandmother put a hidden audio recording device in her 3-year-old granddaughter’s backpack.
>>> South Fayette daycare closes indefinitely after charges filed against 2 employees
A judge sentenced them to five years probation on Tuesday.
The grandmother, Niccole Holder, grew suspicious after her daughter came home with what looked like finger bruises on the child’s arm. The girl also started calling herself “a big fat baby.”
South Fayette Township Police say the audio recordings were 8 hours of torture. Holder said it was relentless.
“On and on calling her names, telling her nobody loves her, nobody is coming back for her. They tell her her ‘Bugsy’ is not coming back for her... and that’s me,” Holder said. “Miss Kelly told her her parents weren’t coming back for her, and that they didn’t love her because she’s a bad child. They told her their house burned down in Arizona and they died in a house fire, her parents her brother her other grandma.”
As part of the plea deal prosecutors dropped the felony assault and felony child endangerment charges. Neither woman is permitted to work with anyone under the age of 18 while on probation.
“I just don’t understand how anybody can do that,” Holder said. “They have kids are their own, even the judge yesterday asked them, ‘how would you feel if it was your child this happened to?’”
Holder said the now 4-year-old girl has a new daycare and is being well cared for. She is in counseling and struggles with fears every time her parents leave.
“A very outgoing happy little girl... always full of smiles and now she’s scared to death. I feel so bad.”
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