Nanny-Cam Leads to Babysitter Arrest

ByABC News via logo
October 12, 2003, 5:05 PM

H O L L Y W O O D, Fla., Oct. 13 -- When Jennifer and Brett Schwartz noticed that their infant daughter seemed unsettled around their babysitter, the couple became curious, and installed a nanny-cam just for their own peace of mind.

The Hollywood, Fla., couple who suspected the baby was just going through separation anxiety were shocked at what they saw.

"We were horrified," Jennifer Schwartz said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "This is someone we trusted and welcomed into our home to take care of our daughter," she said.

Police say the Schwartz's videotape showed babysitter Claudia Muro, 29, shaking the child. Muro was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of felony child abuse.

"They noticed some very disturbing and repugnant views on the tape of the nanny shaking the child and basically snapping the child's head back and forth," said Hollywood Police Capt. Tony Rode.

The charges stemmed from two clips taken on Sept. 24, and pulled from hundreds of hours of video. In one clip, police say that Muro was shaking the baby so that her head snapped back and forth. She then laid the baby on her lap and kissed her forehead.

In another clip, police say that Muro raised the baby above her head and then slammed her to the floor three or perhaps four times. The babysitter's back is to the camera and the lower view of the baby is blocked by the woman's body.

No Injuries Found

There were no visible injuries to the baby, and the child underwent a battery of medical tests, which also failed to find any signs of injury.

Brett and Jennifer Schwartz called police after they viewed the tapes from the nanny-cam Wednesday. They said they were in shock because they thought they really knew Muro. Before hiring the babysitter, the couple said they put her name through a series of background checks.

"Just as backup, we hired an investigator to do a background check and both of the background checks came back with out anything," Brett Schwartz said. "We felt that we had somebody that we can trust that didn't have anything in her past that we needed to worry about," he said.