Additional Coverage:
- Evil mom ordered to spend part of her sentence in filthy home she abandoned her children in (themirror.com)
Vandergrift, PA – A young mother from Pennsylvania has been sentenced to prison time, followed by house arrest and probation, after pleading guilty to charges of endangering the welfare of her five children.
Heidi Beer, 35, will serve between three and 23 months in prison, followed by three years of probation and six months of electronic monitoring. This legal action comes after Beer admitted to abandoning her children for an extended period without food or water in their Vandergrift home, which authorities described as squalid.
Beer and her mother, 69-year-old Leslie Ann Keller of Parks Township, were arrested on July 28 following a domestic dispute call. Upon arrival, police discovered Beer’s five children, aged 9, 10, 14, 15, and 16, living in deplorable conditions without adult supervision.
According to a police affidavit, the property immediately emitted a foul odor. Inside, officers reported having to “avoid stepping on large feces droppings all over the residence, rotten food and urine pooled all over the floors.”
The home lacked food and running water, had a broken shower spigot, and holes in several ceilings. The children were reportedly sleeping on deflated air mattresses.
“It was very obvious that water had not been on in a long time,” the affidavit stated.
The oldest child informed police that their mother had been absent for days. Authorities later located Beer nearly an hour away in Pittsburgh at her boyfriend’s residence. He allegedly encouraged Beer to abandon her children, promising her “a new and better life without them.”
The children’s grandmother, Leslie Ann Keller, was also arrested and charged with child endangerment. Authorities determined that Keller, who lived only a mile away, was aware of the horrific living conditions. Keller admitted to police that she had avoided visiting her daughter’s home for months because it was “too gross” and confessed that her grandchildren would fill empty cat litter containers with water at her home because their own residence had no running water.
Police allege that the grandmother verbally chastised the 16-year-old girl for not cleaning the home. An officer intervened, reminding Keller that it was not “children’s responsibility to clean this absolute disgrace of a mess.”
Keller recently attended an accelerated rehabilitative disposition hearing, though the outcome of that proceeding is currently unknown.