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Daycare owner admits fault, charged in toddlers death

A Westside woman charged with caring for your children is now facing charges in court.

Jacksonville Police say 46-year-old Jan Buchanan has been arrested for aggravated manslaughter in the accidental drowning death of a two-year-old boy.

Buchanan was watching two-year-old Steven Spurlock one week ago at Kiddie Heaven, which she ran out of her home on Ireland Drive. She had six other children in her care, all under five-years-old.

“She forgot to lock a child gate on a glass sliding door, she didn’t lock the gate on the pool and she also had a pool alarm which she did not set,” says JSO Lt. Rob Schoonover.

Spurlock fell in to the pool and was on life support for several days before dying late last week. Police say Buchanan came to the station Tuesday morning admitting she “knew she was wrong” for forgetting the safety measures around the pool.

The daycare center has since been shut down, and police say she did apply for a license for the center in March but never followed through.

“Apparently, people believed that this was being operated under the law,” Schoonover says.

Buchanan is also now charged with operating an unlicensed daycare facility.

She is being held on no bond at this time and makes her first court appearance Wednesday morning.

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