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Cleanup Begins At Blackstone Home Where Dead Children Found

BLACKSTONE (CBS) - The Blackstone home where four children were living in squalor and three babies were found deceased is now under quarantine.

Exterminators arrived Saturday afternoon to decontaminate the home of vermin and insects and later trash removers were on the scene to begin removing the contents of the home.

Three dumpsters will be brought in and up to 12 biohazard materials containers could be used.

"We'll also include the disinfecting of high-risk areas such as where the bodies were found and the areas where there are feces on the walls," said Blackstone Town Administrator Daniel Keyes.

Meantime WBZ-TV is learning more details about Erika Murray, the mother who rented the home

According to police records obtained by WBZ-TV, a neighbor called police in 2011 after seeing a neglected dog in the yard.

And in 2012, a neighbor noticed a dog so cold it could not sit down according to the complaint.

"No water, no food in the bowls," said Lee-Ann Defaut, one of the neighbors who called police because of the dog. "We'd feed him ham bones [and] whatever meats I had cooked that night, leftovers. I was tired of seeing him chew on couches, foam and trash."

Like the other neighbors, Defaut says she had no idea what was going on inside the home. She only knew of the two older children and they seemed healthy.

When the same dog got loose a couple of weeks ago, she knocked on the door and noticed a stench when Murray came to the door.

"I smelled and wanted to go home and wash my hands very badly, because I had to touch the door," said Defaut.

City officials say all fees associated with the extermination and removal of the home's contents will have to be paid for by the actual homeowner.

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