Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald will announce a charging decision at 2 p.m. Wednesday involving the mother of three children who police say were abandoned five years ago and forced to live alone in squalor in a Pontiac condominium, according to her office.
The charging decision comes five days after Oakland County sheriff’s deputies discovered the children — ages 12, 13, and 15 — living in what has been described by officials as “horrifying” living conditions: The toilet didn’t work. Feces were found throughout the house. Garbage was piled as high as 4 feet in some rooms. And two of the children slept on pizza boxes.
According to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, the two youngest siblings — both girls — never left the house in almost five years, and the 15-year-old brother only left twice: once to check the mail, another time to touch the grass. The children lived off food that was dropped off weekly either by their mother, or delivery people who worked for companies like Instacart or DoorDash, he said.
The childrens’ father was not involved in their lives as he had been in prison in prior years, though he did try to reconnect with the kids and get visitation rights following his prison release, Bouchard said. But as of 2022, his wife wouldn’t let him, and by then the children were already living alone in a condo on the otherwise quaint condo community on Lydia Lane.
According to the sheriff’s office, the children were discovered on Friday after the landlord reached out and told deputies there had been no communication with the mother since December, and rent hadn’t been paid since October. So the landlord got concerned that something may be wrong and contacted authorities.
On Friday, sheriff’s deputies went to the home and found the children, who had matted hair and toenails so long that they struggled to walk. The mother was arrested that same day and is currently in the Oakland County Jail.
The children have been placed with a family member following intervention from Child Protective Services. According to Bouchard, the children had no schooling since they were abandoned between the spring and summer of 2020 — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a press conference Tuesday, Bouchard sought to explain how the children fell of the schools’ radar, noting that the Pontiac School District did receive a request for the students’ transcripts from another school. But the district never got confirmation that the children ever enrolled in another school, he said. And after the children didn’t show up for school, the Pontiac district dropped them from enrollment, without anyone knowing where the children ended up.
The Pontiac School District was not available for comment Tuesday.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer whether any complaints were ever filed to CPS about the children, citing privacy concerns and agency policy not to comment on juvenile matters.
Tresa Baldas:[email protected]
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