Woman charged after 2-year-old found wandering McKees Rocks in dirty diaper

Court records reveal a 2-year-old boy was walking alone for about two blocks in McKees Rocks in a dirty diaper last week. Now police charged the person taking care of him.

It was just before 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 11 when McKees Rocks police got called to respond to Lake Street by Broadway after someone saw a 2-year-old boy wearing only a soiled diaper and a t-shirt.

Court documents said when officers arrived, they found "the child had dirty and scraped up legs and feet and was wearing a soiled diaper," but "was in good spirits."

Medics transported the boy to the hospital to assess and clean him up. There, staff told officers, "the diaper appeared to be on the child for some time."

Police said it took nearly 30 minutes before the woman taking care of the boy, 42-year-old Rachel Grachen, noticed he was missing.

According to the criminal complaint, Grachen was babysitting the boy on Zinkhan Street by Amelia while his mom was at work. His mom told officers "there was never any problems" in the past, and that "she provided diapers for Grachen."

Police said Grachen told them she unlocked the back door early in the morning for the boy's mom. Then a couple of hours later, when his mom was about to pick him up, Grachen "went to wake [him] and he wasn't in bed." She also saw that the back gate was open.

Officers note that Grachen's home "appeared dirty and in disarray" with empty beer bottles and cans strewn about, and part of the fence missing. They said in its place, she put up "a large piece of black garbage can and secured it to the fence using shoestrings."

Grachen "claimed to only have one beer" Sunday when watching the kids.

Now she's facing a child endangerment charge.

Alex Tomlinson was sad to learn that a child was wandering on his street without an adult nearby.

"That's just not okay," Tomlinson said. "There's no reason why a baby should be left alone, no matter the supervision of anybody. Parent, legal guardian, should be around."

He just urges folks to keep their kids close.

"Anything can happen, and you don't want it to be your kid. People say all the time, 'well, that can't happen.' It can," Tomlinson said.

Grachen told KDKA-TV she has no comment on the case. She'll be in court for her preliminary hearing on October 28.