The Herald Bulletin

Overnight Update

Cops, courts and fires

Learn about your child care provider

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration provides a searchable database to find out information on your child care provider.

Related Photos

  • Kenya Miles says her two-year-old daughter Nayvia Moore was left alone for five or six hours at Indigo Kids Day Care. Don Knight

    0912 news daycare 015.jpg

Discussion

September 11, 2012

Mom claims day care provider left her daughter alone

Child is unharmed; police investigating

By Abbey Doyle The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON, Ind. — A 2-year-old girl was left alone at a local day care for nearly six hours Monday, apparently left behind when other children were picked up and moved to another site, a local mom claims.

Anderson police have opened an investigation in the case, said department spokesman Detective Joel Sandefur, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Kenya Miles said she dropped her daughter, Nayvia, off at Indigo Kids Day Care site near Eighth and Dewey streets about 2:30 p.m. Monday, signing her in as she normally does before going to work.

When Miles went to the day care’s main location in the 2200 block of West 12th after work at about 11:30 p.m., no one there knew where the child was.

“I was nearly hysterical and started calling everybody in my family to see if they had her,” Miles said. None of them had the child.

The day care’s normal procedure, she said, is to transport children to the West 12th Street location after 6 p.m.

Sometime after Miles arrived to pick up her child, she said Marilynn Collier-Mathis, the owner of the day care, returned with the little girl, who was covered in urine and feces and wearing only a diaper.

Sandefur said the police report indicated the child was “soiled” but didn’t have any note of clothing.

Collier-Mathis told her someone was watching the child, but Miles said police told her they interviewed that person and the woman told officers the child hadn’t been with her.

Miles said she took Nayvia to Community Hospital Anderson for a checkup. Miles said her daughter was frightened, dirty and hungry after the ordeal, but otherwise unharmed.

Miles said she enrolled her daughter in the day care in early August because it’s one of a handful that stays open until midnight. She pays for child care through the Child Care Development Fund Voucher Program (CCDF).

I wouldn’t want my child to go back there,” Miles said. “I just don’t want them to do nobody else’s child the way they did mine,”

Sandefur said the Indiana Attorney General’s Office may investigate the matter as well to see if there were any licensing violations. That agency has the ability to file criminal charges as well as levy other types of punishment if deemed necessary.

A woman who answered the door at the day care center on 12th Street said that Collier-Mathis was not available for an interview.

A man driving a small bus who identified himself as Curtis Mathis declined to talk about the incident.

“Our lawyer told us we don’t have to talk to anybody,” he said.

Find Abbey Doyle on Facebook and @heraldbulletin on Twitter, or call 640-4805.

Reporter Stuart Hirsch contributed to this story.

Text Only
Cops, courts and fires
Hyperlocal Search
Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide