Police: Woman Charged After 2 Young Children Found Living In Home With Garbage Piles And Cockroaches
WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) -- A Westmoreland County woman is charged with endangering the welfare of children, and this is not the first time she has faced charges like this.
Elizabeth Ann Hart was already out on bond for her alleged involvement in a child abuse incident last fall.
She is now accused of child endangerment after troopers found two children living in a filthy home that was crawling with bugs.
"The place should be condemned. It's really filthy," said neighbor CY Kolar.
As bad as the outside is, according to state police, the inside is worse.
Troopers showed up at the home for a domestic dispute call.
Inside, they found two kids, ages 5 years old and 7 months old, in filth and squalor.
Multiple cockroaches were crawling on the walls, garbage and clothing were piled in the home and a child was in a car seat surrounded by it all.
Hart, 22, has been charged with multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Hart was arrested in September 2019, along with 19-year-old Taylor Shipley, after her 3-month-old child was admitted to Children's Hospital after suffering broken bones, bleeding on the brain and other injuries.
"The doctor is adamant there's only one way these injuries could have happened and that was shaken baby syndrome," trooper Stephen Limani said in September.
Hart was free on a $25,000 unsecured bond and was not supposed to have contact with the injured child.
However, the infant was discovered in the house during officials' most recent visit.
Hart is now in the Westmoreland County Jail on unrelated charges.
