Mother allegedly abandons children for years in ‘deplorable’ conditions
The children were living among mold and piles of garbage, officials said.
A Michigan mother was charged with first-degree child abuse on Wednesday for allegedly abandoning her children for several years and leaving them in deplorable conditions, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department.
Kelly Bryant, 34, from Pontiac, Michigan, allegedly deserted her three children, a 15-year-old boy and two daughters, ages 12 and 13, for approximately four to five years, “leaving them to live alone in absolute squalor,” officials said.
“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,” Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard said in a statement.
Bryant is facing the most serious charges of child abuse and is facing up to life in prison, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Bryant was living at the home with her four children in 2019, but at some point in 2020 or 2021, she moved out of the house, abandoning three of her children, while the fourth went to live with their father.
Bryant instructed the children to not answer the door or leave the house. Officials said the boy only came out of the house twice, once to feel the grass and another to check the mail.
The children were discovered on Friday afternoon when deputies received a call from a landlord to perform a welfare check at a house in the 600 block of Lydia Lane. The landlord was concerned about the residents because he had not heard from the mother since December and had not received rent since October.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they found the three children in the home, alone, living in horrific conditions. In some rooms of the house, garbage had piled up to 4 feet tall, along with mold and human feces found throughout the residence. The bathtub and toilets were overflowing with human excrement, and authorities said the mother only dropped off trash bags, gloves and Febreze back in 2020. When police entered the home with the landlord, the daughters were hiding in the bathroom, while the son was hiding in another room.
“It appeared that the children were unfamiliar with how to use personal hygiene items or know how to flush a toilet,” the sheriff’s department said.
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Vitale and Associates Chesterfield, Michigan Macomb County Attorneys
