After reportedly being captured on camera violently abusing several 2-year-old children over a period of several months, a 44-year-old day care provider in Texas was taken into custody.
Last month, Catherine Guziejka was arrested and charged with six charges of intentionally causing physical harm to a child.
The numerous attacks occurred at the Punkin’ Doodles Day Care in Lindale, Texas, which is roughly 200 miles north of Houston, between July and October 2024, according to a probable cause document.
When a daycare worker reviewed the facility’s security camera footage late last month, the investigation got underway. The employee claimed to have witnessed Guziejka kick a 2-year-old boy in the lower back while the child was on the ground during the evaluation.
On October 23, the victim’s father was informed of the occurrence by the employee. The father promptly called the Smith County Sheriff’s Office and submitted a report.
After watching the daycare’s video, investigators claimed to have found proof that Guziejka had physically abused six different 2-year-olds 134 times.
In many of the toddler attacks, Guziejka would approach the victim from behind and kick them in the lower back with her right foot while they were watching television, according to Nacogdoches.
Investigators also noted that Guziejka stood on the toddlers’ wrists, violently moved them around as they slept, and grabbed a sleeping child by the arm and pulled them to changing tables, among other instances of abusive behavior that they saw repeatedly on the video.
Additionally, Guziejka would frequently keep the victims’ heads down while changing them, forcing them to look at the wall rather than the television on the other side of the room.
Before speaking with authorities, Melanie Dawn Law, the former proprietor of Punkin’ Doodles Day Care, apparently watched the CCTV tape. Law allegedly acknowledged in her law enforcement interview that Guziejka had been abusing the kids since July, with at least 100 separate cases of abuse discovered.
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She claimed that after the alleged abuse was made public, Guziejka, who had been employed in September 2023, was fired right away, and that all of the video showing the alleged abuse was then given to the investigators.
“We’ve got six charges we think that are provable in a court of law,” Smith stated. “Now we’re going forward and detectives are combing through hours of video to see if there’s any other forms of abuse that have not been reported.”
