PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) – Three Michigan kids were found in deplorable living conditions after police say their mother abandoned them years ago.
The woman, who was not publicly identified by the sheriff’s office because she shares the same name as one of her children, was arrested last Friday.
“Everybody is upset about it,” Emma Gross, a resident of Pontiac, said. “Like, oh my God. This is right in our neighborhood. How could something like this happen?”
Gross lives several streets over from the home where the kids were found.
Deputies with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office say the house was covered in piles of trash as high as 4 feet in some rooms. There was even mold and human feces throughout the house.
“That’s pretty heartbreaking that the kids would have to live under those conditions,” Gross added.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard said a 15-year-old boy and his two sisters, ages 12 and 13, had not been outside of the home in years. They were surviving on weekly drop-offs of prepared food.
“It reminds me of the commercials you see where animals are living in very deplorable conditions,” Bouchard said. “Well, kind of take that times 10 and that’s what the kids were living in.”
The boy told deputies that his mother abandoned them back in either 2020 or 2021.
Deputies were recently called to the home because the landlord asked for them to do a welfare check.
“The landlord said he hadn’t seen her for some time, and as our detectives mentioned, haven’t paid her rent going back to October,” Bouchard described.
The woman was arrested on Friday and Bouchard says she had been living somewhere else in Pontiac.
The kids had not been in school since they were abandoned.
“That’s going to be a very long process to figure this all out, not just how they are both mentally and physically, but how did this ever happen to have these kids fall through the cracks on so many levels with relatives, the community and the schools,” Bouchard said.
The sheriff said he has never seen anything like this.
“I’ve seen child neglect and other situations where they’re living in a bad place, but not to this level and not for this extended, extended duration,” Bouchard added.
The children’s mother will face criminal charges.
