Cleanup begins in Pontiac home where 3 children were allegedly left abandoned
As the investigation into Kelli Bryant, the 34-year-old mother from Pontiac, Michigan who police say abandoned her three children continues, crews cleaned up the townhome that investigators say the children lived in for years.
Cleaners spent all day Friday inside the townhome on Lydia Lane, where the Oakland County Sheriff's office says the children spent almost every single second for over four years. Sheriff Michael Bouchard described the residence's condition as "deplorable."
"There was feces everywhere, I mean on the walls, wiped on the walls. The toilet was filled up this much," said Dave, one of the people cleaning the townhome.
"I ain't never seen anything like this before. You know how could someone do something to the kids like that? Treating them like a dog, it's just terrible," said Jazz, another cleaner.
A woman who lives about 10 doors down in the same complex told CBS News Detroit that she's still in shock. Living in foster care herself, she said she's astonished the three children were allegedly abandoned for so long without anyone finding out.
"It's tragic it really is, it's been about 4 years so they were a lot younger when this started, and just the fact that their mom shows up once a week to give them a little bit of food with no hygiene products or anything it's going to have a lot of long term lasting effects on them and that really stinks," said Jackie Lovegrove.
Lovegrove said she was confused about how the neighbors who shared walls with the townhome didn't smell or notice anything off.
"Honestly, something like that is going to penetrate. Like, sometimes I smell people cooking in their own places. So the fact that their neighbors didn't notice anything, there was no kind of like rodent problem, or anything they were noticing, is very shocking," she said.
Bryant was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse. A judge handed down a $250 million cash bond.
