Woman accused of depriving children of food, water at home day care in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A day care worker in Philadelphia is facing a series of charges after allegedly neglecting the children left in her care.

Edna Leighthardt, 53, is facing charges including endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful restraint, and serious bodily injury.

Investigators say Leighthardt was running a day care out of her Northeast Philadelphia home where she left children, including babies, in car seats for the entire day and did not provide them food or liquids.

"I just felt in my heart my son is a very lovable baby, he never cries, and he's so sweet. I thought there's no way that someone could possibly be capable of doing this to him," said one of two parents who spoke to Action News.

Neither mother wanted their names used or faces shown, but both grew emotional when talking about the charges.

"[They] were not getting any social, emotional, or physical engagement for the entire day. That was extremely hard for me and my husband to see. We were not allowed to watch the full day of video, we were told it would be too traumatizing," another mother told Action News.

It was Leighthardt's internal surveillance video that SVU detectives used to show parents, so they could identify their children.

No one answered at the Leighthardt home on Tuesday evening when Action News arrived at the scene.

Sources say the day care was unlicensed.

So far, at least eight children are included as victims, but more charges could come.

"We were lucky that none of our children were seriously harmed through all of this. My fear was eventually, the way she was doing things, a baby was going to end up seriously hurt or dead," a parent said.

The defendant retained legal counsel and turned herself in for arrest on Monday night.

Due to a serious heart condition and an agreement that she is not a flight risk, Leighthardt was arraigned and released with set bail conditions.

As part of these conditions, she is prohibited from operating her day care or even babysitting other children.