Stepfather: Ex-babysitter ‘devastated’ when she learned child suffered injuries
Jennifer Lynn Stevens is escorted from District Judge Jay Weller’s office after her preliminary hearing Monday in North Strabane Township.
Jennifer Lynn Stevens is escorted from District Judge Jay Weller’s office after her preliminary hearing Monday in North Strabane Township.
The stepfather of a former baby sitter who is accused of harming an infant in her care said the woman was “devastated” when she learned the child was found to have previous rib injuries and an acute rib fracture.
Chris Langhurst, who lives in Montana, and his wife, Paula, traveled to North Strabane Township, where Jennifer Lynn Stevens, 37, formerly of Hickory, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday on charges of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.
The baby girl was taken in April to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for what police called “an acute life-threatening event” and found to have healing rib injuries and an acute rib fracture.
The Langhursts, former residents of Hickory, Mt. Pleasant Township, who now live northeast of Roundup, got a call from Stevens’ ex-husband, who became concerned about her when she did not pick up her daughter on Mother’s Day as planned. “We started searching for her from Montana” – approximately 1,700 miles away – “and found her in Sewickely (Valley) Hospital,” Langhurst said, adding there was “something wrong” with Stevens.
The family was able to have Stevens admitted to the psychiatric ward of Washington Hospital.
“The system just kept failing her,” Langhurst said. “They didn’t treat her, period. She is not a criminal. She’s a very compassionate, gentle and loving person.” Because of voices she said she heard, “she thought she was healing the baby,” he continued.
Langhurst said Stevens has never hurt her own daughter, and he opined what happened to the baby in Stevens’ care occurred accidentally.
Stevens waived her right to a preliminary hearing Monday before District Judge Jay Weller, who asked her if she had any questions. She shook her head and never spoke during the brief courtroom proceeding. At her formal arraignment, she is likely to ask a Common Pleas Court judge to reduce her $100,000 bond.
North Strabane police Investigator Nathan Terling was contacted last month after he received a report from a doctor the baby had healing rib fractures inflicted at least two different times that were about four to six weeks old. The girl also had a rib fracture that likely occurred about three weeks before she was admitted to Children’s on April 27. The doctor told Terling the fractures were caused by physical abuse.
Terling interviewed everyone who had contact with the baby with the exception of Stevens. The girl’s parents told Terling that Stevens had watched their daughter four times, and the doctor indicated those dates were in the time frame when the injuries occurred.
When Terling found Stevens in her vehicle outside her former home, she reportedly told him she did not remember making an appointment to be interviewed.
Stevens allegedly told police she thought there was an accident while she was watching the child, and that she was carrying the infant down the stairs when she fell and squeezed the girl with her hands to keep her from getting hurt. During the interview, Stevens reportedly told Terling it happened four different times.
“She’s been diagnosed with mental illness in the past, but she was never able to get the help she needed,” Langhurst said. “She never hurt anybody. That’s just the way she is. We didn’t understand the charges.”
He said he and his wife reared Stevens in Hickory, but “after college, she went out on her own.”