3 kids found living alone in squalor for years in Michigan

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

3 kids found living alone in squalor for years in Michigan

The fate of a mother whose three

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for years is now in the hands of the Michigan prosecutor, who will decide whether to charge the 34-year-old woman at the center of what one official described as a “horrifying story” of neglect.

The children − ages 12, 13 and 15 − were found on Friday living in “absolute squalor” in a Pontiac home: Rooms were covered in human waste. Garbage was piled 4 feet high. Two of the children slept on pizza boxes. The children’s toenails were so long that they struggled to walk.

They lived off food that was dropped off weekly by their mother or a stranger, according to the sheriff’s office. The case was sent to the county prosecutor’s office on Monday, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Pontiac woman and accused her of abandoning her children years ago, leaving them to live in alone as their house accumulated garbage and waste.

According to the sheriff’s office, the 15-year-old said he and his two sisters had lived alone in the home after their mother abandoned them in 2020 or 2021. Police said in a news release Sunday that the children “had not attended school since their abandonment.”

The Pontiac School District confirmed Monday that the three children are not enrolled in the district but said they were unable to provide further details because of the sensitive nature of the case, stating “we do not wish to jeopardize any ongoing investigations.”

“The Pontiac community has been shaken by the horrifying story of the three children who were discovered suffering from extreme neglect this past weekend,” Pontiac School District Interim Superintendent Kimberly Leverette said in a statement. “As a school district we are working with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department to assist in any way we can. As educators our hearts are breaking for these children and what they have endured over the past several years.”

The woman who is accused of abandoning her children at the home years ago was arrested Friday and is being held at the Oakland County Jail. Her name has not been released.

Jeff Wattrick, a spokesperson for the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, said the office will not comment on the pending case until it has been reviewed and a charging decision has been made.

The children, meanwhile, have been turned over to a relative via Child Protective Services. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

specifically asking for new or gently used clothes and shoes for a 15-year-old boy and two girls, ages 12 and 13.

Police began investigating the case after receiving a tip from a landlord who said he had not received rent payments since October and had not heard from the mother since December. That sent investigators to the house on the 600 block of Lydia Lane, a quaint street of what appears to be well-kept townhomes.

But inside one of the units, police discovered the unimaginable: children living alone among garbage, human waste and mold, playing video games and living off food that was dropped off.

According to police, neighbors on the otherwise idyllic-looking street had no idea what was going on inside.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#kids #living #squalor #years #Michigan

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up