PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard released more information on the case surrounding children who were left alone for years in a Pontiac home.
Bouchard began his news conference by calling it the "very horrific case."
ORIGINAL STORY: Pontiac mother arrested after abandoning children in home for 4-5 years
He also addressed the question of where the children's father was in all of this. He says the man was incarcerated for a time and had no contact with the children. Bouchard says he tried to reunite with the children when he got out, even filing paperwork with the court to try to get visitation. A consent agreement was "arrived at" in 2022.
However, Bouchard says the mother would still not allow him to see the children.
Bouchard also said they were further working to confirm all those details, clarifying the findings are preliminary.
Bouchard says they have narrowed the window of "abandonment" to spring of 2020, at the "height of COVID." He also says the last time the children's hygiene was addressed by their mother was when she dropped off Febreeze, gloves and garbage bags at that time.
Press conference: Sheriff Michael Bouchard updates abandoned children case
Bouchard also says that the boy only left the house a few times; he reportedly only did so twice, once to just "touch the grass" and then to go out to get the mail.
Bouchard called the revelation the boy just wanted to feel the grass "by itself, heartbreaking."
"You wouldn't do this to an animal, let alone your child," Bouchard said. "So, just to hear that he came outside to touch the grass is just crushing, soul-crushing on so many levels."
He also says that food would be delivered to the house through services like Instacart and Doordash.
"So far, none of the people that were coming to the house had any awareness that there were kids inside or the situation in which they were delivering to," Bouchard says. "Obviously, the question was, was somebody dropping food off knowing there's kids there? No information at this point leads us to believe that."
Bouchard says that right before they were discovered, they were only getting a loaf of bread that was expected to last three or four days.
Bouchard says they are working to determine how the kids fell through the cracks in this case, and is proposing legislation that would close the gap with moving children to different schools that allowed this to happen. He says that a school in Pontiac received a request for transcripts, but the school that sent it never confirmed the children were enrolled there before dropping them off their enrollment rolls.
During his news conference, Bouchard said they had received enough clothing for the children and that they are "shifting" to financial support for the children. They have set up donations through Mission Oakland and are currently looking for a law firm that can set up a trust for the children to administer any funds.
"I will say, we have one of the most generous communities, I think, in the world," Bouchard said.
The children's mother is in police custody. Bouchard says she is talking with officers. However, he says they have not yet determined why she left the kids alone for so long. Bouchard says the children were just afraid to leave the home. Bouchard says their mother was living in another part of Pontiac but would not elaborate on that situation.
Officers conducting a welfare check on the home in search of the mother found the children living alone. Bouchard says the landlord notified them because he hadn't heard from her since December and hadn't received rent since October.
Deputies were called to a home in the 600 block of Lydia Lane on Friday afternoon to perform a welfare check and found the children — a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl, and a 12-year-old girl — all by themselves. The sisters were locked in a bathroom when police arrived.
Officials say that the children were left in squalor, surviving on weekly drop-offs of prepared food. First responders said that four-foot piles of garbage were found in some rooms. Mold and human excrement were found throughout the house. Bouchard says the toilet had stopped working, and the bathtub was filled with feces.
Police say that the children had not attended school since their abandonment, passing the time watching television or playing games. It appeared the girls had not been outside the home for several years, with the boy sleeping on a mattress on the floor while the girls slept on pizza boxes.
The children were taken to the hospital for evaluation, with soiled clothes, matted hair, and toenails so long that it was difficult to walk. Bouchard says they are making great strides since beginning to receive care. They have been forensically interviewed by professionals at CARE House of Oakland County . They were also seen once at McLaren Oakland Hospital. Bouchard says they will also receive a much more in-depth physical and mental health checkup in the near future.
Neighbors told police they did see a woman drop off stuff at the home from time to time, but they never saw the kids leave the house.
The mother was arrested without incident at a separate location, while the kids are now in the care of a relative organized by Child Protective Services. The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office says their parents have been ordered by the court to not have any contact with them.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said they are reviewing evidence that investigators collected in the case. “Several gigabytes of evidence” were included.
“The conditions these children were living in were unspeakably horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement.
Prosecutors are asking for the interviews with CARE House to be expedited.
“Right now, this case is a top priority. Our team is urgently working to process the evidence and make charging decisions. While it is important to move quickly, we must also be thorough to fully understand what happened in that house and ensure justice is done for these three children.”
“The focus from the beginning has been to ensure the children’s health and safety,” said McDonald. “Their parents are not allowed to contact them. The children are getting the help they need while we are assessing the case.”
If you know a child who is being neglected or abused, you can make a report to the state by calling 855-444-3911 and find more info at this link.
