A Vandergrift woman pleaded guilty last week to endangering five children who were found living in deplorable conditions.
Heidi L. Beer, 35, was sentenced Dec. 19 in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court to serve between three and 23 months of incarceration after pleading guilty to numerous counts each of endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment and a single court of false reports.
Beer’s incarceration will be followed by three years of probation and six months of electronic monitoring, according to court documents.
Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio ordered Beer to complete the electronic monitoring in the same “residence and environment” in which the five children lived on Emerson Street, according to Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli’s office.
At the time of Beer’s arrest, the children were 9, 10, 14, 15 and 16.
Area residents rallied to help the children through fundraising and donations.
Police said the children were found living alone in a home that was an “absolute disgrace” and spent days without food or water.
Vandergrift police responded to an incident involving the children in July and found the home had urine and feces on the floors, bunk beds made of plywood, rotten food on countertops, leaky pipes and holes in the walls and ceiling, according to court documents.
One of the children reported not seeing Beer for days, court papers said.
Police said the children kept their clothing in an abandoned house next door.
The children told police Beer claimed to be living with a boyfriend in Pittsburgh but had not checked on the children in days, according to Ziccarelli’s office. Beer told police she lived only at the Vandergrift home.
Dogs and a cat were removed from the home, and the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau was called in to help, police said.
Relatives later took custody of the children, according to Ziccarelli’s office.
Beer’s mother — Leslie A. Keller, 69, of Parks Township, Armstrong County — also was charged with child endangerment.
She was scheduled for an accelerated rehabilitative disposition hearing last week, but her online court docket did not reflect what happened.
Keller told police she was aware of the house’s condition but had not gone inside in months. She described it as “too gross.”
