COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KXRM) — Kate took her daughter twice a week to Play Mountain Place. Daycare wasn’t a necessity, but she thought it was a good thing to help her daughter, who is almost two years old, make friends.

Kate’s last name was withheld at her request.

On Wednesday of last week, she arrived around 3 p.m. as she always did to pick up her daughter. But this time, she was met by workers from the Colorado Department of Human Services and Colorado Springs Police Officers.

Play Mountain Place Daycare had just been raided amid complaints of improper supervision, and reports the children were being housed in an unlicensed facility.

CDHS officers had discovered 26 kids, all under the age of three, hidden in a basement behind a false wall,

The CDHS said it also found kids in dirty diapers in need of food and rest.

Kate told KXRM News when she first saw her daughter, the little girl was missing a shoe. A DHS worker escorted her into the basement area, where the kids had been hidden, to find it.

“[DHS] walked me down this very narrow staircase that immediately smelled like smoke, stale smoke, stale smoke that I had smelled on my daughter. Trash everywhere, discarded high chairs, discarded toys,” Kate said. “[The DHS worker] walked me back to another room that had probably 10-15 metal cribs lined up, almost like you see in movies at an orphanage.”

Later, Kate clarified the metal cribs she saw were actually pack ‘n play portable cribs.

She said the situation gave her an anxiety attack, a rare occurrance for someone who works in an emergency room. She called her husband and her brother, asking them to hurry over to Play Mountain Place.

“The poor [Child Protective Services officers], they were doing everything they could. They had 30 kids with three or four people. There was poop everywhere. There were diapers — it was chaos.” Kate said.

Colorado Springs Police continue, as of Monday, to investigate four employees, including the owner, Carla Faith, for child abuse and neglect. The agency initially filed charges against the group, but dismissed them a day later.

In their original release, CSPD said the children were found behind a false wall in a ‘finished basement.’

“It said, ‘Oh well, it was a finished basement.’ It makes it sound like just another play area. This was not a play area. This was a dungeon.” Kate said.

Colorado Springs police would not confirm or deny the descriptions Kate shared with KXRM News at this time. Kate said she’s still carrying the weight of what she saw.

“You question everything. Everything you believed about [Carla Faith], the choices you made for your kids,” she said.