Daycare Worker Accused Of Killing Child Was Already Under Investigation

Friday, May 18th 2007, 4:01 pm

By: News On 6

Some Tulsa parents are outraged after learning the woman they trusted to take of their children is accused of killing a child. Department of Human Services workers say they found an unconscious 2-year-old at a Midtown daycare on Thursday. He was rushed to the hospital, but he died late Thursday night. Daycare owner, Vicki Chiles, is now charged with first degree murder. News On 6 anchor Latoya Silmon reports, some parents want to know how this could have happened.

Like other parents who brought their children to Chiles daycare, the Hudson's thought their two boys were safe.

â€œShe took our children to church, they prayed before every meal,â€ said parent Jenna Hudson.

Now they're questioning what else Vicki Chiles may have done, because now she is charged with murder.

â€œDisbelief. I'm angry. I'm mad that someone I trusted my children with could do something so horrid,â€ Hudson said.

Even more disturbing to the Hudsonâ€™s, Chiles was already under investigation. On Tuesday, the state filed felony child abuse charges against Chiles. In that case she's accused of hitting an 8-year-old boy numerous times with a fly-swatter. Because of that charge DHS came to the house hoping to shut the facility down, when the arrived they discovered the 2-year-old unconscious.

â€œI can't talk about this specific case,â€ DHS Spokesperson Mary Leaver said.

But the Hudson's say there should have never been a second case.

â€œUltimately this was the doing of Mrs. Chiles, but we feel part of the negligence goes to the state for not contacting us parents and letting us make decisions for our children as parents,â€ parent Jonathan Hudson said.

â€œIt's a tragedy we very much feel for the parents of the child, and we feel the parents who have other children at the daycare,â€ Leaver said. â€œIt's a tragic situation. We feel very confident that our workers operated in the processes and all of the procedures at this point we can't speculate.â€

Chiles has had her DHS license since 2002. Since then the agency says there were a minimum of three unannounced visits a year. During some of those visits they found safety violations, children that were not immunized, and at times, too many children and not enough caregivers.

On two separate occasions DHS also investigated abuse allegations, but they were not substantiated.

Watch the video: Daycare Owner Accused Of First Degree Murder Had Previous Child Abuse Charges

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5/17/2007 2-Year-Old Dies After Being Tied Up At Daycare, Says Police