Four charged with endangerment in Fayette after toddlers found in roadway
Toddlers found lying in road, police say
Four people are accused of child endangerment after two toddlers in their care were spotted lying in the middle of a road in Allison.
Police said the children were found to have wandered from the home of maternal grandmother Jeana Kline, 58, and paternal grandfather Thomas Darst, Jr., 50, both of Allison, who were named partial guardians by Fayette County Children and Youth Services.
They were charged Monday along with the children’s parents — Shane Gardner, 24, and Kelsey Kline, 22, both of New Geneva — who’d also been at Kline and Darst’s home at 403 Second St.
Video from a nearby homeowner’s security camera taken on April 26 and turned over to police showed the children, a 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl, had been outside unaccompanied for at least 44 minutes, the complaints filed in the case state. That lasted until 6:25 p.m., when they were safely retrieved from the road, according to court documents.
The toddlers were found at the intersection of East Avenue and Second Street. It’s a place where drivers frequently speed, which put the children at risk of death or serious injury, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Austin Moody wrote in charging documents.
The children had dirty hands and feet, with fresh scrapes, and their diapers appeared not to have been changed for several hours, according to the criminal complaints.
After interviewing a witness, police saw the family come from the area of the home “nonchalantly looking for something” near the site where the toddlers were found, the complaints said.
According to court paperwork, none of the adults were able to tell police the last time the children’s diapers were changed, when they last ate, or the last time they had seen them.
Gardner and Darst said they had been remodeling the basement, according to their affidavits of probable cause. Kelsey Kline said she was doing laundry, while Jeana Kline told police she was busy caring for Darst’s bedridden mother.
Because of the toddlers’ lethargic behavior, police had Fayette EMS transport them to WVU Medicine Uniontown Hospital for evaluation, the complaint said. After doctors there determined they needed more specialized treatment, they were taken to WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.
A CYS caseworker determined the two toddlers would be placed in a foster home, as would two other children of Kelsey Kline and Gardner’s who’d also been under their grandparents’ care.
The four adults face two counts each of endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.
They had yet to be arraigned as of Tuesday morning.