STUARTS DRAFT VA: (WSVA) – A Stuarts Draft woman has been arrested one-and-a-half years after a young child was found dead in her care.

In a release, Augusta County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Leslie Snyder said that 53-year-old Denise M. Stewart was taken into custody on Monday, four days after a grand jury indicted her on multiple counts of welfare fraud and abusing and neglecting children.

According to Snyder, Stewart was running a daycare at her home on Stuarts Draft Highway in October 2022 when authorities received reports of an unresponsive infant. Emergency workers were unable to revive the child.

An investigation failed to prove that Stewart caused the death; the most of the 15 charges stem from violations of state daycare ordinances around the child-to-adult ratio.

She was released on bond.