Neighbor watches parents run for babies at illegal Bellevue daycare
A mom found her 3-month-son dead at an illegally run daycare at The Avana Lexington Apartments in Nashville
By Marissa Sulek
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A mom found her 3-month-son dead at a daycare in a Bellevue apartment complex. WSMV4 confirmed a woman was running it illegally.
Metro Nashville Police Department say the death happened Monday afternoon. The apartment was a daycare run by a woman who was found hours later at Harpeth River State Park with self-inflicted wounds.
Sources tell WSMV4 51-year-old Anne C. Jordan operated the daycare illegally. She didn’t have a license and was caring for seven kids that were not her own.
The Avana Lexington Apartments are where Sharlene Wagner lives, and Monday afternoon she saw a scene she will never forget.
“There were about four cop cars, we weren’t exactly sure what was happening,” says Wagner.
Moments later she says she saw people and babies sobbing.
“And then I saw parents coming down the stairs, like rushing down the stairs, holding their babies and they were crying,” says Wagner. “And I remember seeing a man get out of his car and just run up the stairs. I mean he was missing two or three steps at a time just to get up there. And he came down with his child, but it was just like, you could see the fear in these parents faces.”
Metro Police says Jordan was watching seven kids under 16 months of age. They say the six kids are OK. The baby who died showed no obvious injuries or medical issue.
“It’s just devastating, in anything, an accident, or my first thought was maybe the baby died and she freaked out and got scared and ran,” says Wagner. “But you don’t know, only she knows.”
Right now, Metro Police Youth Services detectives are investigating. Detectives will also interview Jordan.
But all Wagner can picture is what happened at her complex days ago.
“Just thinking of babies sitting there in their diapers and screaming,” Wagner says.
Tennessee law says it’s illegal to have over five kids under your care without a license.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services says Jordan was unlicensed. The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services is investigating this case for abuse and neglect.
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