Parents in Colorado Springs, Colorado used to know Carla Faith, 58, as a beloved daycare owner. Not anymore. She’s been arrested after allegedly hiding 26 children behind a fake wall in an unlicensed day care, according to The Colorado Springs Gazette.
She was arrested Monday, but the allegations surfaced in November. Police were doing a welfare check on behalf of the Department of Human Services, cops said at the time. They went to the Victorian home that housed Faith’s Play Mountain Place daycare. Inside, they discovered a “false wall” hiding passage into a basement.
Faith had a license to care for six children at the location, police said. She allegedly cared for 26 kids, each under age three. Many of the children were thirsty, sweating, or had wet or soiled diapers, according to the affidavit as told by the Gazette.
The defendant is charged on suspicion of child abuse knowingly/reckless with no injury and attempt to influence a public servant. She is no longer detained at El Paso County Jail, a clerk told Law&Crime. Online records show she is scheduled for a first appearance at an El Paso County court on January 8, 2020. It’s unclear if she has an attorney.
Accounts indicate that Faith had a great local reputation among parents.
“Even our pediatrician, who’s well known in town, recommended her,” Kayla Shaw, a local mother, told Fox 21. “When I told her that’s where we were going to be she said, ‘oh, that’s great, we love her!'”
Kate Singh–a digital executive producer for the outlet, and one of the mothers linked to the case– wrote that she and other parents had originally been charmed by the daycare.
“The scene parents encountered, after officers called instructing them to come pick-up their children, was much different from what they saw on their initial tour, and even from what they saw every day during drop off,” she wrote.
All told, Faith allegedly ran a total of four daycares. Officials said two were unlicensed.
“Hindsight I’m like, God why didn’t I question more?” mother Sherry MacWilliam told the outlet. “A puppy mill for toddlers is what she was running.”
[Image via El Paso County Jail]
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