And it may have roots in a troubled childhood of her own.
Christina Regusters' father, 40-year-old Demetreaus Moore, was recently released from prison and is living in Maryland as a registered sex offender.
Back in 2005, when Christina was 11 years old, Moore was charged with two counts of sexually abusing a minor. He was convicted and went to jail in 2006.
I spoke with him by phone.
Moore admits he went to jail for sexually abusing a minor. And he says he has the deepest sympathy for Christina's alleged victim and her family.
He says no child should go through anything like that.
Police say Regusters, dressed in Muslim garb, abducted the five-year-old from her classroom at Bryant Elementary School last month.
The girl was sexually abused and then dropped off in a park in Upper Darby wearing only a t-shirt.
Regusters' lawyer, W. Fred Harrison Jr., says she had nothing to do with the abduction and rape.
He says, because of her own troubled childhood, Christina is more protective of children than most.
Regusters had been working at the daycare where her alleged victim was cared for after school.
Police say she posed as the girl's mother to get her out of school and then took her a few blocks away to the home she shares with her aunt and her aunt's boyfriend.
Sources say Regusters may have acted alone initially, but they suspect she had help covering her tracks before the police closed in.
Police have collected dozens of pieces of possible evidence from Regusters' home for laboratory analysis. That analysis is ongoing at several labs, and the police say it may be a week or more before they wrap things up.
