The Detroit Police Department discovered seven young children, unbathed and unfed, living amid feces, a rotting dog carcass and two guns.
The Detroit Police Department recently entered a downtown home they believed to be abandoned looking for drug paraphernalia and made a shocking discovery. Instead of finding evidence of drug abuse, they discovered seven young children, unbathed and unfed, living amid feces, a rotting dog carcass and two guns. There was no heat or no running water in the home and there were no beds for the children, ages 9 months old to 9 years, to sleep in. The home was left in disarray with piles of clutter and debris lining the walls, and glass missing from most of the windows. Investigators said the horrific scene was the one of the worst cases of child neglect they’d seen in nearly thirty years.
Ultimately, police officers were able to locate and arrest the children’s 29 year old father on neglect charges, defined as “failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care” to a child. The mother was apparently not charged in the case. There was another mysterious woman found in the home with the children at the time of the raid who refused to speak to investigators and her identity has yet to be revealed. All seven children were taken to a local hospital for a full examination and will be released into the custody of Child Protective Services. Next steps for care have yet to be determined.
Neighbors claimed to be unaware of what was going on inside of the home located in an area well known for drug related activity. However, a woman next door claims she spotted one of the children shirtless in a window a few weeks ago and was puzzled given the cold temperatures. Fox 2 New’s special interest reporter Amy Lange covered the story. “I seen a little boy,” the neighbor named Diana told her, “I don’t know how old has was, maybe about five or six, in the window. He had no shirt on and I just know it was cold that day. I just said, wow, but I didn’t know. I haven’t seen nobody in a while.”
Last year, the Detroit Free Press reported that the number of abused and neglected children in the state of Michigan had risen to its highest level in 25 years, with nearly 250,000 area homes investigated and approximately 35,000 confirmed victims over a twelve month span. Eight Michigan counties had abuse and neglect rates that were twice as high as the state’s overall average with Detroit and St. Clair counties topping the list. Drug use in the same counties has also reached an all time high, which more and more homes becoming hubs for use and later left abandoned. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has created a Governor’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect “committed to creating positive change in the child welfare system”. The task force holds regularly scheduled quarterly meetings and “encourages innovative programs, develops protocols, provides training and education, and proposes legislation to enhance Michigan’s response to child abuse and neglect”. More information on the case of the seven abandoned children is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Sources
Neighbor Sees Boy In Window Of Abandoned Home, But Cop Is Horrified When He Gets Search Warrant
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