The mother of a two-year-old boy has spoken of her horror after learning her child had been abused and starved at a Texas daycare center for more than a year.
Ta’lor Oliver, from Forney, Texas, says her son Triston suffered bruises, scratches, starvation, and ‘severe’ diaper rash while under the care of Rebecca Anderson, who ran Becky’s Child Care from her home in Mesquite.
Anderson, 60, was arrested last Friday after hidden camera footage allegedly showed her drugging children, strapping them into car seats, and keeping them in closets for hours.
Police were tipped off after a six-month-old’s father fastened a hidden camera to his car seat.
In an emotional interview with DailyMailTV, Oliver has told how she was horrified to learn that her young son had been abused by the ‘sweet’ woman she had trusted to care for her child for a year.
‘Every day I would drop him off and I would go to work [not] knowing that he could be in a closet or in a car seat for up to seven hours,’ Oliver said.
‘I know there were plenty of times when I picked him up and he’d be hoarse, and I never thought that that would happen.’
Ta’lor Oliver, from Forney, Texas, spoke of her horror after learning her two-year-old son Triston Oliver had been abused and starved at Rebecca Anderson’s daycare in Mesquite for more than a year
Keonna Johnson Oliver pictured with two-year-old grandson Triston Oliver. Keonna and Triston’s mother Ta’lor reveal how they noticed changes in the toddler a few days after using Anderson’s daycare service
Rebecca Anderson, 60, was arrested on Friday at the day care she runs in Mesquite, Texas, where police found five children strapped into their car seats with ties around their necks. She is shown left, in her mugshot, and right, in a social media photograph
Oliver said she never imagined her son was being abused by the daycare owner but has since noticed all the ‘red flags.’
She said: ‘Every time I think about it I get upset because in the beginning he never wanted to go. He never wanted to go.’
Oliver said she chose the daycare service for her son after reading glowing reviews and recommendations of the woman who had worked in child care for 20 years.
‘The reviews were good, when I went to meet her, her house was super clean. When I brought Triston with me, she kinda let him roam around, she showed me all the rooms,’ she said.
‘Everything just seemed OK that I would trust her enough to let my son go there.’
Following that initial visit, Oliver and her step-mother Keonna Johnon-Oliver, were not allowed back inside the house and they noticed Triston’s behavior began to change.
The young boy was returning home with bruises, ‘abrasions,’ and what appeared to be ‘carpet burn’ after spending the day at Anderson’s home.
At first, Oliver said she did not question the marks and gave Anderson the ‘benefit of the doubt.
But when Keonna finally asked the care-taker about her grandson’s injuries, she said Anderson would dismiss it as ‘roughhousing’ among the kids.
‘Everything that she told us, checked out,’ Oliver said.
Even after news of Anderson’s arrest, Triston’s mother and grandmother said they were still incredulous of the claims.
‘I just can’t believe somebody would do that because he’s such a sweet kid and he’s such a sweet baby and I just can’t believe I trusted her for a whole year,’ Oliver said, fighting back tears.
Ta’lor and Keonna said Anderson would dismiss Triston’s injuries as ‘roughhousing’ among the kids
Looking back, Oliver said she wishes she ‘would’ve made a bigger deal’ about things she initially took for granted.
‘When we did come pick up Triston, she would never keep the door open long. You never saw inside, you never saw any other kid. I never heard any other kid. Typically you hear kids playing, laughing, music … silent. I never heard anything.
Keonna added that she never met any of the other parents and only saw some in passing when they picked up the young boy.
‘There were times when she’d come to the door and she’ll rant for 10 or 15 minutes. And in the back of your head you never think, what are the kids doing? I don’t hear any kids, no kids running here, nothing like that – so that was a big red flag.
Oliver said: ‘You keep giving her the benefit of the doubt because you just think she’s this sweet – especially because of her age – you don’t think she gonna try to do anything to your child.’
Keonna says she first became very concerned after noticing two abrasions around Triston’s neck area that looked as if he had been choked.
However, she assumed it had been caused by another child at the daycare.
‘That really concerned me because I was like, is somebody choking him? Like, a kid? Never crossed my mind it would be her doing anything to him’ she said.
Anderson would allegedly instruct the parents to text her when they were on the way to pick up their child so she would have them ready and waiting by the door for the parents.
She did not permit them to go past the front door, and if Oliver or Keonna had arrived early, she would not open the door until she had the boy in her arms.
Oliver said she noticed that Triston was always in a rush to go home upon pick up.
‘He would run out of the door. He would run, literally,’ Keonna said.
‘And she would tell him bye and he would never look at her. He would run straight to the car.’
Unlike most child care services, Oliver claims Anderson did not provide information on their child’s meal plan, their daily schedule, or when their diapers would be changed.
She claims Triston would return home starving and would even cry for food the entire way home.
‘I would put Triston’s sippy cup in his bag and it came back with the same amount of whatever was in there, water or juice that left the home that morning,’ she said.
This is the home in Mesquite, Texas, the woman operated her daycare center out of. The business has now been shut down
Oliver admits she was alarmed by this but recalled how Anderson would talk about getting Triston to eat on the high chair so she assumed she was feeding him with a ‘big boy cup.’
But her concerns grew after she took Triston to the pediatrician and learned that her son had not been gaining weight and had developed severe diaper rash.
‘I went to the doctor three times, and I said “I need a different allergy medicine, because every time we give him allergy medicine he’s getting this rash to the point where there’s skin peeling off, and I need something else.”
‘And he said: Well it’s just baby Zyrtec, it shouldn’t be causing a rash.’
During their first interview, Anderson had promised how the children were taught sign languages, and different languages, something that Triston never learned.
In fact, Keonna says the boy did not show signs he was learning anything, he wasn’t speaking, and would frequently act out.
Triston has since been moved to a new daycare facility, where his grandmother says he is ‘excelling.’
‘Before he wasn’t gaining weight, he didn’t know colors, he wasn’t responsive as far as asking him to do things on demand, all that has changed within the last month and half.’
She added: ‘I think a lot of people are thinking you save money and that’s why we chose her, no.
‘She wasn’t any more affordable than some of the facilities that were ran with a larger amount of kids, larger amount of employees. She still charged a decent amount of money and she definitely made sure her dues were paid Monday morning.
‘If I dropped him off instead of Ta’lor on Monday, the first thing she would ask was not “good morning, how are you guys?” It was, “did mom put the money in the bag this morning?”
Both Ta’lor and Keonna have said they were grateful for the father of the child who tipped off police and have called him a ‘hero.’
‘You have to be a voice for your kids because we put so much trust in her, I never would have imagined,’ Keonna said.
‘I would have probably been the grandmother yelling “free Miss Becky!” That’s how much trust we had in this lady. It’s so disappointing.’
Oliver added: ‘Let us be an example and a lesson to all the parents out there that’s giving the day care workers, the stay-at-home moms that are leaving their kids with friends, family, anybody that you pay, let us be a lesson to never over think, never put so much trust in someone because you just never know.’
Police received their tip off from the father of a six-month-old boy who had fastened a hidden camera onto his car seat when he dropped him off at Anderson’s Mesquite, Texas, home.
The footage showed her yanking him out of his car seat and giving him a substance with a plastic syringe.
She was also filmed yanking him by his bib, NBCDFW reports.
When police searched the house on Friday, they found three children in their car seats in the closet in her master bedroom and one more in the master bathroom.
The children had shoelace like ties around their necks which had to be cut off. Anderson said she put them on there to restrict the children’s movement.
When asked how many children were inside the home, police say she lied and told them there were only five.
They discovered another four kids moments later.
Anderson told the officers that she sometimes left the kids in their car seats for up to seven hours a day and admitted giving them all Tylenol.
Police say she gave them it in unnecessary doses which may have put them at risk.
Anderson remains in custody on a $45,000 bond.