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The Oakland County Sheriff's Office has arrested a 34-year-old woman who is accused of leaving her three children alone in “absolute squalor” in a Pontiac rental home for years while she lived elsewhere.
As of Saturday, the mother was being held in the Oakland County Jail pending possible charges, according to a sheriff's press release. Her name was not released.
The children, two girls, 12 and 13, and a boy, 15, survived only on weekly drop-offs of prepared food the mother or a stranger left on the front porch.
The children had not been to school since being abandoned either in 2020 or 2021, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said. They watched TV or played games.
“Throughout my extensive career in this field, I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement. “This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for three children. They have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years."
Deputies on Friday discovered the children after the landlord requested a welfare check at the home in the 600 block of Lydia Lane. The rent had last been paid in October and the landlord had last heard from the mother in December.
Garbage in the home was piled as high as four feet in some rooms and mold and human waste was found in the home, the press release said. The toilet was overflowing and feces were found in the bathtub.
The mother reportedly was in touch with the son but not the daughters. The son slept on a matress on the floor while the girls slept on pizza boxes, the sheriff's department said.
The sheriff's department said the girls had not left the house in years.
Child Protective Services have placed the three children in the custody of a relative.
They were taken to the hospital for evaluation. They were wearing soiled clothing, their hair was matted, and their toenails were several inches long which made it difficult to walk, authorities said.
