Photo by Tiffany Bright: A Safford police officer speaks to Erin Kidd after a missing toddler returns from crowded Safford Street. She was arrested on child abuse charges and put in prison. Kidd ran Kidd Palace Child Care outside her home. Authorities say this is the third case in which three separate children have gone missing in less than a year.
by John Johnson
jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com
Safford – A woman who ran an unlicensed childcare business outside her home called Kid Palace LLC was arrested on suspicion of child abuse after her young daughter was found walking downtown. Safford Police Chief Brian Avila said officers had responded to children in the same location multiple times over the past year when they found children abandoned outdoors.
Erin Kidd was arrested on Thursday, June 29, on charges of child abuse after an abandoned child was found in the Fifth Avenue and Relation Street area and was placed in the Graham County Adult Detention Facility. At the time, Kidd was running a childcare business out of her home at 420 West Relation Street.
Around 6:03 p.m. Thursday, Tiffany Bright and her fiancé Roger Robb were returning home from running errands when they spotted a girl, believed to be under the age of two, walking down Relation Street. Bright said the child was wearing no shoes, a shirt and diapers, and was watching a movie on his mobile phone just off a busy thoroughfare. Ms Bright told the Gila Herald that she and Rob’s hearts were depressed as she watched her situation unfold. It wasn’t the first time for Bright.
About eight months ago, she encountered a similar situation when she found a girl wandering Relation Street without an adult in sight. At that time, Bright said she gave birth to the child for about 10 minutes until she realized the child was from Kid’s Palace.
After the first missing child incident, the childcare business was closed, apparently only temporarily. On March 1, a boy was found wandering alone in the same area. According to Safford’s previous release, the child was reportedly with police for about an hour while they went door-to-door until the person responsible was found at Kid’s Palace.
“At this rate, the child will die,” Bright said. “I’m really frustrated with this whole situation…”
Bright and her fiancée Rob were heartbroken by a series of incidents of children being left loose near the street. Rob lost her brother when she was five years old when she was hit by a car while crossing the road.
On Thursday, Ms. Bright knew exactly where to take her wandering toddler and told Kidd about the situation.
Another parent was picking up the child from nursery school at the same time Bright brought the girl home. Parents entered the mansion and returned with Erin Kidd. Ms Bright told the Gila Herald newspaper that she handed over the child to Kidd and told him it was the second time she had taken a lost toddler back to her home-cum-nursery. Ms Bright said Kidd simply “understood” and admitted the fact that Ms Bright told her that her next move would be to call the police.
“I really hope that all parents who have children in daycare know what’s going on,” Bright said.
