Warning: This story contains graphic information some readers may find disturbing.
Newly released photos and videos show the horrific conditions inside a Blackstone, Massachusetts home where police found the remains of three infants in September.
Piles of garbage, feces-smeared walls and soiled mattresses and laundry can be seen in the images, which the Boston Globe reports were released in response to a public records request.
Erika Murray, who lived in the home with her four children, is now behind bars. She has been charged with fetal death concealment, permitting substantial injury to a child, animal cruelty and witness intimidation. She has pleaded not guilty.
Police arrived at the home after a neighbour called with concerns about a crying baby. That’s when they discovered the filthy conditions inside the home. Feces lay in piles on the floor and were smeared across the walls and the ceiling. Soiled diapers littered the floor.
The Department of Children and Families was called in to take custody of the four children, between five months old and 13 years of age, who were living there.
Days later, police found the bodies of three newborn babies inside the home. Two of them were in bags that were hanging in a bedroom closet. They were dressed in diapers and onesies.
Four dead animals were also found inside the home, and police say there was a significant pest and rodent problem.
The house at 23 St. Paul St. has been condemned and demolished.
Town administrator Daniel Keyes, who was part of a team of people who donned hazmat suits and documented the squalor inside the home, says that in some spots the piles of garbage reached as high as the ceiling.
“You were taken over by the smell,” said Keyes.
Defense attorney Keith Halpern says that because of a delay in the case, Murray has not yet been seen by a psychiatrist.
“This is a woman who has not seen a doctor, or any medical professional, for over a decade. She’s barely been out of that house for a decade.”
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