A Michigan mother is facing charges of child abuse after her three abandoned children were found living alone in extreme squalor for years.
“All of us are asking, ‘How the heck did this happen? … How did no one know?'” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard asked during a news conference Tuesday after detailing the horrific conditions inside the Pontiac, Mich., townhouse condominium where the kids were discovered.
Bouchard called the living conditions where the three children — aged 15, 13 and 12 — were found “abuse of the highest order.” Garbage was piled high on the floor, human excrement and mould were found all over the house and the toilet was overflowing when officers arrived on scene last Friday after the landlord requested a welfare check. The landlord told police he hadn’t received a rental cheque for several months and that the kids’ mother had stopped communicating with him.
Bouchard also said the two sisters and their brother did not have access to basic hygiene items like toilet paper, they slept on mattresses and pizza boxes on the floor and their toenails were so long it was painful for them to walk.
“They have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years,” Bouchard said in a statement. “The far-reaching consequences of this abuse must be acknowledged.”
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The case against the 34-year-old mother, who is not being named to protect the identity of her three children, was given to the prosecutor’s office on Monday for review.
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“These three kids were entrusted to the care of their mother … and the evidence suggests that she effectively abandoned them to a revolting pit of refuse and squalor,” said Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor in suburban Detroit, after the child abuse charges were laid Wednesday.
“What stands out the most for me is, no love,” McDonald said later during a news conference. “There was nobody there to care for them.”
The children were covered with feces, and the girls had trouble walking outside the home, she said. At a hospital they struggled with flushing a toilet and brushing their teeth “because they had not done it in years,” the prosecutor added.
Bouchard said the three children had been taken to the doctor for a health checkup and are currently in the care of social services. He said they’ve already seen “amazing progress” in all three and thanked the public for the clothing donations for the kids.
“Having had some tender love, having had some supportive care, having been put in new clothing and some basic hygiene — the one detective said that the little girl was talking quite a bit, so that’s super exciting,” said Bouchard.
Bouchard said errors in the school enrolment process allowed all three children to slip through the cracks. Their father had been in jail when their mother abandoned them, he said, but she denied him visitation rights once he was released.
However, the mother did either drop off or send the children food once a week, often using delivery services like Instacart and DoorDash, ensuring no one ever entered the condo.
Police believe the mother abandoned her children in 2020 or 2021, meaning they have lived alone for at least four years. The children spent their days watching television or playing video games. The sisters told police they only went outside twice in that time — once to touch the grass and another time to check the mail.
The mother was arrested at another location without incident.
The Sheriff’s Office is now collecting financial donations to help the children with educational resources and other supplies.
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