FEBRUARY 17--A Pennsylvania woman is facing a child endangerment charge after a photo emerged online showing her posing next to her child, who was duct-taped to a chair, with tape over her mouth.

While the image appeared last week on mediatakeout.com, the site blurred out the faces of the smiling woman and the bound child, leaving them virtually unidentifiable to law enforcement.

That is until suspect Caira Ferguson, 21, approached police herself. She claimed that the person who leaked the photo--a copy of which she actually gave to cops--was also purportedly guilty of stealing her identity.

Investigators believe that Ferguson, fearful that she would eventually be identified as the woman in the photo, concocted the identity theft story in a misguided effort to somehow protect herself. Ferguson, pictured above, apparently discounted the possibility that the photo itself could be considered evidence of a crime.

A subsequent police investigation determined that the photo was taken about six months ago, when Ferguson’s diapered daughter was 18 months old. A search warrant was executed at Fergsuon’s Chester Township residence, where cops recovered the purple chair seen in the photo, according to a probable cause affidavit. “The chair was found to still had remnants of duct tape affixed to the arms and legs,” police noted.

In a recorded interview, Ferguson admitted taping her daughter to the chair last July. As a result, she was charged yesterday with child endangerment, false imprisonment, and unlawful restraint.

Fergsuon was booked into the Delaware County jail where she is being held without bond. (3 pages)