Texas daycare owner accused of abuse
FORT WORTH, Texas — A daycare owner tied shoelaces around the necks of young children to limit their movement and gave Tylenol to each child to make them stop crying, according to an arrest warrant.
Rebecca Anderson left the tied-up babies and toddlers in car seats for at least seven hours each day, according to the warrant.
In one incident, Anderson, 60, yanked a 6-month-old baby by his bib, which was around his neck, according to the warrant obtained Monday by the Star-Telegram.
Anderson was arrested Friday after police investigated complaints from parents about the treatment of their children at Becky’s Home Child Care in the 4300 block of Tamarix Court. Mesquite is about 45 miles east of Fort Worth.
One parent captured the alleged abuse on a camera mounted on his baby’s car seat, according to the warrant.
Police searched the daycare Friday and shut it down, removing nine children. Detectives coordinated with doctors at Children’s Hospital in Dallas to have the toddlers and babies medically evaluated.
“The children’s parents were called to the scene,” police Sgt. Joseph Thompson said in a news release.
When confronted by detectives about leaving the children in car seats, Anderson acknowledged her actions were wrong and could have resulted in the death of one of the children, the warrant states.
The arrest warrant gave this brief account of the case:
One parent found the daycare through the Dallas Family Protection Service, which listed the owner as Rebecca Anderson.
On Thursday, the family dropped off their 6-month-old at 7:30 a.m. and picked up the child at 4 p.m. The family had mounted a camera on their son’s car seat.
Once the family got home they watched the video and saw Anderson roughly yank their son out of a car seat and then feed him an unknown substance using a plastic syringe.
That family reported the incident to police on Friday, handing over the video to authorities.
Detectives went to the daycare about 1:30 p.m. Friday with a search warrant. Anderson answered the door and told police there were five children in the home.