A Michigan woman brought in to clean a Detroit-area home where three children had lived alone in squalor for years has described the desperate conditions the youngsters were forced to endure.
Kiara Mills says she and her uncle spent almost eight hours trying to clean the run-down house after police were called in and uncovered the shocking situation, according to Fox2 Detroit.
The condo housed three children — a 15-year-old boy and two girls, aged 13 and 12 — who had allegedly been abandoned by their mother, Kelli Bryant.
She was arrested and has been charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse. She’s currently being held in the Oakland County Jail on a $250 million bond.
Investigators say the children lived alone inside it for four to five years as the house fell into disrepair and they fought to survive.
Mills, who has five children of her own, said the task of cleaning up the home left her both physically and mentally drained in part because she knew the history of the condo.
She told the outlet that thinking about the condo left her sleepless, and she described its interior as deplorable.
On February 14, the Oakland County Sheriff sent deputies to visit the home and found that garbage inside was piled as high as four feet in places. Mold and human waste were found throughout the house, and both the toilet and bathtub were overflowing with feces.
Mills said when she was contacted to clean the home, police were “screaming for help.”
“I went over the walls at least about 10 times,” she said, noting that “bad” was a severe understatement when describing the condition of the condo.
Despite her best efforts, Mills says she does not believe the home is ready for human habitation.
“The floor has to get gutted out,” she told Fox 2 Detroit.
As of this report, the home has not been cleared for occupation.
The children survived on food left on their front porch by either their mother or a stranger who was looking out for them, the 15-year-old reportedly told police.
The sheriff said the children did not know how to flush a toilet and had no knowledge of personal hygiene habits.
With no adult in the house, none of the children attended school. Instead, they stayed at home and watched TV or played video games. According to the sheriff, the two girls had not left their home for years.
The boy slept on a mattress on the floor, and the girls slept on flattened pizza boxes, according to the sheriff.
Neighbors told deputies that they had no idea what was happening at the house.
Bryant’s former sister-in-law, Charlene Bryant, told the outlet that the discovery was “horrendous” and questioned how the children were allowed to live alone so long without any of Kelli’s family acting on their behalf.
“I honestly don’t know how the family didn’t know,” she said.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald also pointed blame toward Kelli’s family when announcing the charges against her, according to Fox 2 Detroit.
“Morally, there is plenty of responsibility to go around for how this was allowed to happen. However, these three kids were entrusted to the care of their mother, Kelly Bryant,” she said. “And the evidence suggests that she effectively abandoned them to a revolting pit of refuse and squalor.”
Her next court date is scheduled for March 4 for a motion hearing, and her children are being housed with a family member.
