Pair Who Left Children for 16 Days Charged

A couple who vanished for more than two weeks, leaving their four children with an eighth-grade baby-sitter who used her wits and her own money to care for them, turned up Monday and were charged with child endangerment.

Bonnie Railing and James Fignar originally had said they would be gone only three days, and offered no public explanation for their 16-day absence. Fignar’s employer said he was working in New Jersey until Saturday installing floor coverings.

The couple were arrested when they appeared at a custody hearing for the children, ages 2 to 10.

The sitter, 14-year-old Angela Morris, tried to maintain the household, enlisting the help of friends, skipping school and keeping the secret from authorities, hoping to keep the children out of foster homes.

The gas had been shut off at the house, so the teen-ager improvised to feed and bathe the youngsters, at one point heating bath water in an electric coffee maker.

Police acting on an anonymous tip came to the house Friday.

Their parents were arraigned on four counts each of endangering the welfare of a child. Bond was set at $10,000 for Railing and $15,000 for Fignar, and both were being held in Allegheny County Jail.

Family Court Judge Joseph Jaffe ruled Monday that the children must remain in foster care at least until another hearing Oct. 5.

The couple learned about the hearing from the children’s grandmother, who said she tried to gain custody of the children last week.

The couple had no comment as they left the custody hearing.