OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has sent the case involving three kids who were allegedly abandoned by their mother and left to live alone for years to the prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old mother of the three children, a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl, and a 12-year-old girl, is still in custody as they continue to investigate and Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald reviews the case.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard also gave more details about how this level of neglect could go on for years without anybody knowing about it.
When did the abandonment begin?
Detectives believe the kids were abandoned sometime in the spring or summer of 2020.
They learned that the mother had dropped off trash bags, gloves and Febreze for them in 2020, but that was allegedly the last time she brought them any hygiene-related items.
While the kids were living in the house, their mother was living at another location in Pontiac. Authorities didn’t go into any details about those living arrangements.
Who dropped off food for the kids?
While the children were abandoned, they survived off of weekly drop-offs of prepared meals.
Bouchard said that their investigation shows that delivery companies, like Instacart and DoorDash, were dropping off the food. It doesn’t appear that any of those drivers were aware of the situation going on inside the home.
Bouchard also said that toward the end of their time living alone, the kids were allegedly getting one loaf of bread dropped off that was supposed to last them three to four days.
Where was the kids' dad?
The father of the children had been incarcerated for some time and didn’t have any contact with the kids. Bouchard said that when he got out, he filed legal papers to get visitation rights to see the kids and a consent agreement was issued in 2022, but the mother allegedly still would not allow him to see the children.
Why didn’t family members help the kids?
Bouchard said that the relatives of the children had no idea what was happening to the kids. The mother had allegedly told them that somebody else was babysitting.
Why didn’t the children ask for help?
When referring to why the children didn’t leave or ask for help, Bouchard said that the kids were young and scared. They were doing what they were told and living in these conditions became their reality.
Bouchard said he wasn’t sure at this point if the mother said anything in particular to scare the children.
Boy only left home twice during abandonment
During the years that the children lived alone, the boy was the only one to have gone outside the home, and he only did twice.
He told authorities that he left the home one time to “touch the grass” and another time to check the mail.
Bouchard said this level of neglect is “soul-crushing.”
“You wouldn’t do this to an animal, let alone your child,” said Bouchard.
How did no one at school notice?
Bouchard said that this happening during the COVID-19 pandemic played a bit of a part, but also said that gaps in the state’s school code allowed for the status of the children to go undetected.
One school received a request for records from another Pontiac school, but no verification ever moved to that school. So, when the children didn’t show up to school, they were dropped off the enrollment list for the school that had sent over the transcripts.
In this case, both schools presumed that the children were at the other school.
Bouchard said they are proposing amendments to the Michigan school code that would close the gaps so that prior to a child being unenrolled, the school would need to obtain written confirmation that the child is attending another school.
And if a child doesn’t show up at school for some time, then that would trigger a follow-up to ensure the child is OK.
How are the kids doing?
Bouchard said the children had been taken to the hospital for evaluation when deputies discovered their living situation on Friday, Feb. 14, but they are planning on getting additional mental and physical health checkups on the kids this week.
The sheriff said they are already making great progress and he mentioned that a detective said one of the girls was talking quite a bit.
How can I help the kids?
“I think we have one of the most generous communities in the world,“ Bouchard said as he thanked the community for stepping up and donating items for the kids.
He said they received “bags and bags” of clothing for the children, so now they are pivoting to gather financial support for them.
“We appreciate the community’s response in supporting the three neglected Pontiac children,” the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post. “At this juncture, we have sufficient clothing donations and are shifting our focus to accept donations for educational supplies and to allocate resources for their future well-being. We are accepting donations to a tax-deductible qualified fund, with 100% of the contributions going directly to the children."
Bouchard reiterated that 100% of the funding will go to the kids, and said his office is looking for a law firm to help set up a trust fund for them.
“You see those videos of animals in just terrible conditions on commercials and it pulls at your heartstrings, imagine maybe by 10, living in what we showed you and then play it out over years, not days or weeks,” said Bouchard. “So it’s hard to wrap your head around this one.”
You can watch the full press conference here:
What deputies discovered at the home
Deputies performed a welfare check at the home in the 600 block of Lydia Lane in the afternoon on Friday, Feb. 14, after the landlord called them.
The landlord told them he hadn’t heard from the mother since December, and rent hadn’t been paid since October. He was concerned that something could have happened.
When they arrived, they found the home in deplorable condition.
Garbage was piled as high as four feet in some areas and mold and human waste were found throughout the home.
The toilet was overflowing and they found feces in the bathtub, according to the sheriff’s office.
The children were found wearing soiled clothing. Their hair was matted and their nails were several inches long.
Neighbors told authorities they never saw the children outside the house, but would see the mother drop things off.
After their mother was arrested, the three children were put in a relative’s custody by Child Protective Services.
On Monday, Michelle Ratcliff, a neighbor, expressed her outrage over how the children were left to live alone in those horrible conditions for years.
“You just can’t do kids like that,” said Ratcliff. “They can’t fend for themselves.”
Ratcliff said she knows the kids' grandfather and said it’s sad that nobody checked on them.
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