MA - Remains of 3 infants found, Erika Murray charged, Blackstone, Sept 2014

[MyBelle]

It was still in my history. Here's the link for her craft page:

https://www.facebook.com/ErikasCountryCupboardandPrimitives

thanks! her art is such a dramatic, polar opposite of her chaos at home. It's difficult to believe her boyfriend lived there but didn't know about two children. That's quite a leap to believe that.

 

[Renee110]

One of my boarder's (she boarded her horse here, not lived here) invited me over one time. She had I don't know how many dogs in her trailer, and the floor was not only covered in poop, but it was inches deep in one bedroom. I didn't even know what I was looking at when I looked in that room, my friend Ray who was with me told me it was poop. The smell in that house was indescribable. I knew she had a bad body odor, but never dreamed it was dog poop. I never went back, and Ruth moved her horse home and kept it tied to a clothesline. Anyway, last summer Ruth had a heat stroke and lay outside till her husband got home and was brain dead. I went over there to get her horse to sell it for him and I gave him a hug, and dang the smell coming off of him was bad enough I had to hold my breath. I don't get how anyone in that house didn't smell to high heaven all of the time. Why didn't teachers check on why those kids smelled? There is no way they didn't have an odor. I doubt they smelled like death, which is a very distinctive smell, because those babies would have smelled for a while, but the smell would have gone away. They should have smelled like feces and filth.

 

[Renee110]

After reading on web sleuths for a couple of years now, from now on when someone smells that bad consistently, I will be going to the police station to make a report. I don't want anyone on here thinking that I have gross boarders, because I really don't, but I do have another boarder who has been here for about 8 years now that is a hoarder. When her daughter was 12, a teacher at her school reported that Mikayla wore dirty clothes and smelled bad and they sent someone out and that is when it came out that she is a hoarder. I happen to love Lori, my boarder, and everyone here at the barn got together and helped her clean her house so it would be clean when they came back. She is the sweetest person, she just has problems. She is still a hoarder. She rents my small 3 stall barn, and I just close my eyes when I have to walk thru that barn. She keeps the outside pretty neat but heaven help you if you open the feed room.

Anyway, my point is from now on I WILL be calling authorities if someone stinks like that. In that case of Ruth, her elderly parents lived with she and her husband, and the one time I went over there they were sitting outside on front porch even though it was pretty nippy to just be sitting outside. Looking back, I wish I had reported her, although I knew her parents had nowhere to go and didn't have money for a retirement home. Just a bad situation all around. If I had called maybe they would have been homeless.

 

[SaucyGal]

I'll go ahead and submit my application for the "preoccupied club" as well. I don't remember how to split up all the quotes from up thread a bit so please bear with me. I don't think they'll demolish the house until they have completed all their investigations and the homeowner gives the go ahead. I can't find the story I was reading that said that, I've read FAR too many so going through my history is useless..lol The cost of the demolition would probably fall to KR if that happens on top of the estimated 25k so far. If the structure itself is not compromised, the only reason to demolish it would be due to deter curiosity. Someone here or one of the numerous stories I've read, mentioned putting in some type of memorial lot/park if the house is demolished. I think that is an excellent idea and I bet they could gain enough funding through fundraisers to do it. Oh, one other thing about the house I found out was there are 3 bedrooms total in the house and 2 of them are upstairs. I can't find that link either, but it was on one of those sites that has the specs in spreadsheet type detail (maybe an appraisal site of some kind?).


I asked in one of my previous posts about why the schools didn't report anything about the way the children smelled too. I've thought about it for awhile and I find it possible no one detected an odor. The classrooms aren't usually small spaces and teachers/faculty aren't really allowed to hug kids (or get really close..you know what I mean) like when I was a kid. Especially not on a consistent basis. If a kid smelled funky, as kids tend to do the older they get, they may not have thought much of it if it was just in passing or a one off thing. I do wonder about the maternal grandparents and great grandparents because the older 2 had lengthy visits with them. Surely they had to take clothing with them for those visits. Idk, maybe the children had clothing already there if they visited often enough?? My MIL used to keep spare sets of clothing for my kids.

The fabric/porous material crafts she sold freak.me.out! There were bedbugs, fleas, etc. in that house not to mention the smell...I really hope the buyers didn't have any issues, especially with the bedbugs! *shudder*

I found this story out of Canada and it speaks of a mom that hid the remains of 3 of her infants (she has other children too):

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario...on_babies_found_in_box_yield_few_answers.html

...and an update to that story:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/31/13428586-qmi.html

It appears that the dog (Red), has a new family lined up once she is well. I'm not sure about the cat (Aimee) though. Here is the shelter's FB page if you want to keep up with their progress. It sounds very positive so far!:

https://www.facebook.com/MedfieldAnimalShelter

 

[sapofamily]

So, if there are 2 bedrooms upstairs, and one bedroom on the main floor...wonder where the older children slept? Did RR, EM, KR, & NR all sleep in the same bedroom?

I agree re: the odors and that it'd be impossible for anyone to not detect at least strong pet odors on the kiddos at school. I worked for a counseling agency a few years back that provided in-home services. We had a family that lived in deplorable conditions due to hoarding, numerous animals (15+ cats/dogs), poor hygiene, animal feces, etc. and before CPS got involved, the school would have the children change their clothes when they arrived at school due to the adverse odors! I will attest to the fact even paper that was in the house carried the odors....so, I can only imagine what the Rivera children smelled like.

 

[Aleph]

I kind of like her crafts. They're not my style but I can see why they sold well.

 

[wenwe4]

Where I live, if children smell badly at school - the school usually tries to talk to the child about hygiene, talk with the parent, and if no other options there are showers, washers & dryers at school and the children are given a pair of donated sweat pants & top to wear that day. Although one could report the smell and hygiene of the children to CPS - it would not be enough to open an investigation. I live in an "imminent harm" State - where the child has to be at at risk of death or needing medical attention for the problem. That is why chronic neglect cases are often the most difficult to intervene because the ways the laws of written for "imminent harm" language.

Smoking pot, in and of itself, is also not a reason to open a case for CPS investigation. You have to show that the children have been harmed by parent who was high. I do not know what the standard is in Massachusetts for CPS to intervene.

 

[lawstudent]

My guess is they want to make sure all the evidence is secured before destroying the building completely - there could be something that later becomes relevant regarding the setup of the house, even if has been cleaned out. And if the owner doesn't want it torn down but instead wants to repair it, that's a consideration too. I doubt anyone wants it there as it is - I would guess it will be torn down eventually once things settle down.

 

[SaucyGal]

So, if there are 2 bedrooms upstairs, and one bedroom on the main floor...wonder where the older children slept? Did RR, EM, KR, & NR all sleep in the same bedroom?

I agree re: the odors and that it'd be impossible for anyone to not detect at least strong pet odors on the kiddos at school. I worked for a counseling agency a few years back that provided in-home services. We had a family that lived in deplorable conditions due to hoarding, numerous animals (15+ cats/dogs), poor hygiene, animal feces, etc. and before CPS got involved, the school would have the children change their clothes when they arrived at school due to the adverse odors! I will attest to the fact even paper that was in the house carried the odors....so, I can only imagine what the Rivera children smelled like.

It’s a 2007 report that brought the Department of Children and Families into the fold. A relative who was living with Murray and Rivera was threatening to hurt herself.

While there police noticed, “children sleeping on couches in the living room,” in a house that was “littered with dirty clothes, etc. on the floor.”

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/...tone-home-29-times-before-gruesome-discovery/

(BBM) So maybe they were still sleeping on the couch? The couch I saw didn't look large enough for 2 people to comfortably sleep on as is, but maybe it was a sleeper sofa.

"In 2011, on her Facebook page, Murray posted about getting new carpet and appliances in the home..."

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2014/09/erika_murrays_blackstone_home.html

She had a few pics of the new carpeting as well as a pic of a couch in the same set. It looked fairly new and in good shape. There was a cabinet of some type in the pic with 2 doors that had safety locks on them like the kitchen cabinet door.


Thank you for talking about your experience, sapofamily. When I was a child, I had a family member that was very similar to EM in regards to filth and to a large degree the neglect (not AS bad, thank goodness, but it was bad enough) of my nieces and nephew. I will wonder forever why my folks didn't do anything. The closest I could think to compare would be cigarette smoke. My mother always smoked in her home except when we'd visit a couple times a year. When we'd get home our luggage and clothing inside would reek even if I had just laundered them before leaving her house! To be honest, I was never cognizant of the odor until I moved out and away from the smoke. It's just so hard thinking of a home being so filthy it would cling to clothing/person like cigarette smoke. I guess I'm in denial. I wonder if they had frequent respiratory issues/colds? The air quality couldn't have been good.

 

[Rainstorm]

I just don't get how one could live with in that smell. Death. At the extremes of death (babies, kids) they deserve a proper burial. Could this be why ? Couldn't afford it. There were pot plants in the basement. I would imagine he made a profit from that......

 

[EmiLove832]

Someone just told me recently that people with body odor issues no longer smell themselves after so many days. None of us know what our cars or homes smell like because we are so used to the smell. I guess the family got used to the stink.it is hard to imagine though.

 

[wenwe4]

It might come down to the feasibility of being able to repair/replace and seal in odors vs. the costs of tearing it down. It appears the costs are pretty high and the County may never recoup their losses so far - do they want to put anymore money into this home? It might also further depend on the results of the details that remain to be seen of what actually occurred in that home - they tore down the home that Gina deJesus and the other girls endured such horrific conditions.

 

[lawstudent]

Yeah, it's clear hoarders and other people with such problems adjust to the conditions over time and are in a state of denial. The question is more why others did not notice it, but maybe somehow it wasn't that bad, since it seems like they were in and out of the house on a regular basis. I had classmates who smelled bad and it didn't alarm anyone, but it didn't smell like death or anything. But I knew someone who had a serious issue with body odor - I'd been to her house and it did smell like that, but somehow it was a million times worse on her. She was from a culture that ate a lot of spicy food, and that was kind of what the house smelled like, but it seemed to just cling to her and worsen. It was strange and really overpowering, but not the type of thing you would report We tried to mention it nicely, but it just was always a problem. Sometimes people probably dismiss it as bad hygiene and never think about how living conditions may affect it.

 

[lawstudent]

Also, I have tutored in very nice homes with dogs that smell horrible. I don't understand it - I've never smelled anything like it - it does smell like some sort of decay. The houses are spotless, but they don't seem to notice, or I guess ever bathe their dog. I have a dog and sometimes she smells but nothing like that. I love dogs but sometimes have to do all I can to avoid touching them or breathing near them. When I do touch them, I have to continually put hand sanitizer on my hands over a period of time to remove the smell - it lingers for hours. Yet the family members do not smell.

 

[SaucyGal]

The home could be gutted and the framing "sanitized" like they did to many of the flooded homes in New Orleans after Katrina. If it's as bad as they say it is on the inside, I don't see a board of health/county official allowing it to be occupied. Honestly, except for a bit of neglect on the outside, the home appears nice enough from the photos I've seen that if it were completely gutted/remodeled it would definitely be fit for occupancy - IMO. Now, whether one would want to live there with the history...ehh, some people are weird that way. My aunt was murdered in her home and my cousin even left the blood stained carpet in it (horrible if you ask me) and a group of college students still rented it. It was a town the size of Blackstone (pop approx 9k) so it's not like no one knew. They may have even rented it just FOR that reason. *smh*

I found a link here on WS regarding that woman in Canada that hid her 3 deceased infants:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?85039-London-ON-Jennifer-Sinn/page1#top

These cases are eerily similar, except I didn't find anything about them living in squalor. This woman brought the bodies with her during a move which now makes me wonder....Officials said that they believe EM's infants were born between 2004-2011. One set of remains was reportedly found in the closet inside a bag. So, maybe that was the first one and she brought it with her. Just a thought. That seems to be really all we have to go on these days is supposition and theories based on so little available info.

I find myself wondering where the 2 youngest are waking up...Are they still in a hospital type setting? Do they have caring and compassionate people around them or more clinical folks that maintain "distance"? I hope the 6 month old is getting cuddled and talked to as much as possible. I have no experience in "rehabbing" (for lack of a better word) neglected babies, but I wonder if at 6 mo. old, if the baby would still benefit from skin-to-skin contact? I know I did that to bond with my babies. I feel it helped us bond. I also wonder if RR has seen the youngest 2 since all this happened? Maybe there is something wrong with me...lol I just can't help but wonder these things..I wish they'd release an update on the children.

 

[sapofamily]

It’s a 2007 report that brought the Department of Children and Families into the fold. A relative who was living with Murray and Rivera was threatening to hurt herself.

This relative was most likely Kristina (Rivera) Whitney, RR's sister? Which indicates that he has issues with substance abuse, and most likely a family hx of mental health...

While there police noticed, “children sleeping on couches in the living room,” in a house that was “littered with dirty clothes, etc. on the floor.”

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/...tone-home-29-times-before-gruesome-discovery/

(BBM) So maybe they were still sleeping on the couch? The couch I saw didn't look large enough for 2 people to comfortably sleep on as is, but maybe it was a sleeper sofa.

"In 2011, on her Facebook page, Murray posted about getting new carpet and appliances in the home..."

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2014/09/erika_murrays_blackstone_home.html

She had a few pics of the new carpeting as well as a pic of a couch in the same set. It looked fairly new and in good shape. There was a cabinet of some type in the pic with 2 doors that had safety locks on them like the kitchen cabinet door.

Maybe EM's mother was attempting to help them get the house cleaned up? I was just digging around and found Sharon's arrest record. (PAGE 5) It's not real clear where she was embezzling, but she was arrested in 2008.

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Police/nov2008.pdf

Thank you for talking about your experience, sapofamily. When I was a child, I had a family member that was very similar to EM in regards to filth and to a large degree the neglect (not AS bad, thank goodness, but it was bad enough) of my nieces and nephew. I will wonder forever why my folks didn't do anything. The closest I could think to compare would be cigarette smoke. My mother always smoked in her home except when we'd visit a couple times a year. When we'd get home our luggage and clothing inside would reek even if I had just laundered them before leaving her house! To be honest, I was never cognizant of the odor until I moved out and away from the smoke. It's just so hard thinking of a home being so filthy it would cling to clothing/person like cigarette smoke. I guess I'm in denial. I wonder if they had frequent respiratory issues/colds? The air quality couldn't have been good.

I can completely relate to being desensitized to cigarette smell and not realizing how badly it smells...my mother was a chronic smoker & I didn't realize how much my belongings smelled until I moved away to college. I'd say it's pretty likely the older children had frequent illness considering the conditions of the home, and we have read that officials/police were called to the home previously on several occasions due to child absences from school.

 

[sapofamily]

FWIW, here's another arrest record for EM's mother from April 2014. If nothing else, it paints a picture of family dynamics:

14-3375 1128 MV VIOL.& LOCATION ARREST 17 & OVER FEMALE
Primary Id: PATROL OFFICER MATTHEW RANKINS
Location/Address: PLEASANT ST
Vehicle: RED 2004 CHRY VN PTCRUI Reg: PAN MA 8414MI VIN: 3C4FY48B54T280586
Refer To Arrest: 14-44-AR
Arrest: MURRAY, SHARON L
Address: 1833 QUAKER ST NORTHBRIDGE, MA
Charges: LICENSE SUSPENDED, OP MV WITH
MTC WARRANT 0857CR003309

http://www.uptonma.gov/Pages/UptonMA_Police/Arrest Log 03.24.14 - 03.30.14.pdf

 

[SaucyGal]

Also, I have tutored in very nice homes with dogs that smell horrible. I don't understand it - I've never smelled anything like it - it does smell like some sort of decay. The houses are spotless, but they don't seem to notice, or I guess ever bathe their dog. I have a dog and sometimes she smells but nothing like that. I love dogs but sometimes have to do all I can to avoid touching them or breathing near them. When I do touch them, I have to continually put hand sanitizer on my hands over a period of time to remove the smell - it lingers for hours. Yet the family members do not smell.

The dog that was rescued from EM's house had a full-body yeast infection. We used to have an English bulldog. He was a rescue so we would've taken him to the vet anyway, but he smelled so bad we took him immediately. Breeds with skin folds/wrinkles (shar pei, english bulldogs, bloodhounds, etc.) are prone to them. Our dog even had it in his ears. The smell was disgusting, we didn't let him on the furniture or the carpeted areas of the house until he was over it. He rolled around on a small rug that I had and I ended up throwing it out. So yeah, I bet poor Red smelled horrible between the skin infection and the house itself. Our bulldog passed away a couple of years ago and we've recently been adopted by 2 dogs...They get the typical doggie stink - wet or sun bathed dog. lol

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinio..._pets_likely_the_only_comfort_for_children_in

 

[wenwe4]

The home could be gutted and the framing "sanitized" like they did to many of the flooded homes in New Orleans after Katrina. If it's as bad as they say it is on the inside, I don't see a board of health/county official allowing it to be occupied. Honestly, except for a bit of neglect on the outside, the home appears nice enough from the photos I've seen that if it were completely gutted/remodeled it would definitely be fit for occupancy - IMO. Now, whether one would want to live there with the history...ehh, some people are weird that way. My aunt was murdered in her home and my cousin even left the blood stained carpet in it (horrible if you ask me) and a group of college students still rented it. It was a town the size of Blackstone (pop approx 9k) so it's not like no one knew. They may have even rented it just FOR that reason. *smh*

I found a link here on WS regarding that woman in Canada that hid her 3 deceased infants:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?85039-London-ON-Jennifer-Sinn/page1#top

These cases are eerily similar, except I didn't find anything about them living in squalor. This woman brought the bodies with her during a move which now makes me wonder....Officials said that they believe EM's infants were born between 2004-2011. One set of remains was reportedly found in the closet inside a bag. So, maybe that was the first one and she brought it with her. Just a thought. That seems to be really all we have to go on these days is supposition and theories based on so little available info.

I find myself wondering where the 2 youngest are waking up...Are they still in a hospital type setting? Do they have caring and compassionate people around them or more clinical folks that maintain "distance"? I hope the 6 month old is getting cuddled and talked to as much as possible. I have no experience in "rehabbing" (for lack of a better word) neglected babies, but I wonder if at 6 mo. old, if the baby would still benefit from skin-to-skin contact? I know I did that to bond with my babies. I feel it helped us bond. I also wonder if RR has seen the youngest 2 since all this happened? Maybe there is something wrong with me...lol I just can't help but wonder these things..I wish they'd release an update on the children.

I agree with you about the home being able to be gutted, remodeled, and sanitized to be habitable. I think the current issue may still be bedbugs, roaches, rats, or some other vermin.

I am so very sorry about your aunt.

Thank you for the link to the other story in Canada. It was extremely informative about skeletal remains of infants.

My personal opinion is the infant is probably in a therapeutic pre-adoptive foster care with a whole lot of therapeutic appointments lined up back to back to attempt to get this child back on track toward reaching developmental milestones. The 3 y/o will probably require much more intensive help. She may require tube feeding if she is so malnourished. My thoughts are she will probably be in some sort of hospitalization in the least restrictive environment possible. If she is not in a hosital or nursing care facility, she will probably be doing some sort of out-patient therapies everyday. Depending on the muscle tone, she might even be receiving care with hydrotherapy to ease the ability and pain of movement and exercises. The number one thing that needs to happen is both babies have 1 or 2 "primary" care providers that they bond with. That person will become the mother or father figure to these infants that consistently meets their needs in a loving way. These babies have not been able to develop trust that anyone will be there for them for comfort, food, diapering, play, social engagement, emotional regulation, etc. That relationship must be established in order to move onto the more complex occupational, physical, speech therapy tasks so they can take place. She will probably be receiving services from a local neuro-developmental school for infants and children.

Again, MOO

 

[wenwe4]

In looking for reasons why mother's might conceal multiple infant deaths - I found a link to National data base in the UK for case reviews of serious child abuse neglect issues compiled and currently updated. Here is a link but it comes with a warning - these cases are extremely sad and graphic and are quite upsetting to read. FWIW - I did not see any cases that were similar to this one but I didn't read them all.

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/scrs/case-reviews-2014_wda101121.html