CUDAHY -- A woman accused of killing an infant in her illegal daycare has been doing something else that has parents outraged -- she's been volunteering and organizing events at a Cudahy Elementary School.
Carrie Heller is charged with first-degree reckless homicide. In January, a six-month-old girl died in the illegal day care she ran from Heller's Cudahy home. The medical examiner ruled little Finley Olson had a brain bleed and a fractured skull. But while she awaits trial, Heller has been volunteering at J.E. Jones Elementary School.
"As a parent, it made me sick," said Michelle Dronso, a Cudahy mom. "I don't feel that she should be around children."
"It would make me nervous, you know, you don't know," said Rob Wettengel, who lives across from the J.E. Jones.
Parents are outraged to hear Heller has contact with children especially because the terms of her bail include "no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 12..." except her own.
Heller's release on bail also requires her to wear a GPS monitoring ankle bracelet, which she joked about on Facebook last month while promoting a roller skating party.
"I think we should wear leg warmers!!! (They will hide my bracelet!)," Heller wrote in a post.
"A sane person, a mother would not make a joke of any child's death," Dronso said.
Dr. James Heiden, the superintendent at the School District of Cudahy, said Heller was supervising her own children at the events and it is not a school sanctioned organization but a volunteer group that helps out.
Heiden said she will not be allowed to continue. He called her comments on Facebook quote "insensitive and a little crazy."
Heller has pleaded not guilty to the homicide. She did not answer the door when TODAY'S TMJ4 tried to contact her.
Heller's trial is set for January.
