Former Centre County Daycare Worker Indicted on Federal Child Pornography Charges

A former Centre County daycare worker arrested in 2025 for allegedly taking sexually explicit photos of children at the facility where she worked is now facing federal charges.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Shannon M. Ishler, 45, of Bellefonte, on charges of production and possession of child pornography.

The indictment accuses Ishler of engaging in in the production of several images of child exploitation involving multiple toddlers in her care and distributing them over the internet, Brian D. Miller, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said in a news release on Wednesday.

Ishler was charged in Centre County in September 2025, after an investigation that began when a Benner Township daycare received threatening Facebook messages and photos of nude children they determined were taken at the facility.

Day care staff reported they received messages that “one of your staff are trying us,” and that if they did not cooperate “we are ready to damage your school and kill some kids.” They also received photos of three young children with their genitals exposed and were able to identify the location in the day care where the pictures were taken from an item in the background, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by state police last year.

Ishler was one of the few employees who would have access to the area where the photos were taken, police wrote. Staff also reported that Ishler did not abide by a rule requiring cell phones to be left in the office and was known to take photos of children to send to their parents.

After filing for an emergency disclosure from Meta, investigators found the threatening messages came from a WhatsApp account with an identifier and phone number based in Nigeria, according to the affidavit. When interviewed by police, Ishler said she had been communicating via WhatsApp with a person she described as a friend from Texas, but a forensic analysis of her phone determined the account was located in Nigeria.

Ishler, staff told investigators, had gotten involved in scams on social media. One day she came into work upset because she had sent a nude photo of herself to someone on a messaging app who then threatened to send the image to her family and friends if she did not give the person money, according to the affidavit.

She blocked the person, who found her on another social media app and began communicating with her again, police wrote

The search of Ishler’s phone uncovered 21 images of child sexual abuse material depicting boys and girls under the age of 10 with their genitals exposed, according to the affidavit. The images were recovered from a folder associated with a WhatsApp conversation, which investigators said also contained “extortion related documents.”

Ishler allegedly told the person she was communicating with that she was “going to sell naked pics,” though police wrote that it was not clear if she was referring to photos of herself or children.

Her county court case is pending and pre-trial conference had been scheduled this week.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Ishler on Aug. 31 and she is currently in custody.

The FBI Philadelphia’s Capital Area Resident Agency and the Pennsylvania State Police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Luisa Honora Berti is prosecuting.