Mother arrested after abandoning her 3 children in an apartment for 4 years, Pontiac MI

[Deleted member 19575]

Three Michigan kids were found in deplorable living conditions after police say their mother abandoned them years ago.
….
Sheriff Michael Bouchard said a 15-year-old boy and his two sisters, ages 12 and 13, had not been outside of the home in years. They were surviving on weekly drop-offs of prepared food.

“It reminds me of the commercials you see where animals are living in very deplorable conditions,” Bouchard said. “Well, kind of take that times 10 and that’s what the kids were living in.”

Mother arrested for abandoning kids in home for over 4 years, sheriff says

A Michigan mother has been arrested after abandoning her three kids in a home for years, according to investigators.

www.live5news.com

I think we need to stop normalizing having kids you can't afford or take care of. It's not wonderful or a miracle.

 

[Stunned]

So whoever was delivering the food to them was opening the door and seeing them and the condition they were in and what their living conditions were and closing the door and walking away. Did the children ever get sick? What could they do if they did?

 

[CalliopeMuse]

So whoever was delivering the food to them was opening the door and seeing them and the condition they were in and what their living conditions were and closing the door and walking away. [...]

According to the sheriff (as reported by the Detroit Free Press), the other folks were just delivery people leaving parcels outside the door:

• The other people who were dropping off food once a week — other than the mom — were employees who worked for food delivery services, "like an Instacart or a DoorDash" said Bouchard, noting: "None of the people that were coming to the house had any awareness that there were kids inside, or the situation in which they were delivering to.”

It's mind-boggling. I'm surprised that the children hadn't turned semi-feral, if that's the right word. I guess the boy managed to keep things somewhat together, despite the circumstances.

 

[ClaireNC]

According to the sheriff (as reported by the Detroit Free Press), the other folks were just delivery people leaving parcels outside the door:

It's mind-boggling. I'm surprised that the children hadn't turned semi-feral, if that's the right word. I guess the boy managed to keep things somewhat together, despite the circumstances.

Also from that article “Toward the end, the kids were left a loaf of bread that was supposed to last them for three to four days.” This is so horrible and hard to understand how it could happen. I imagine these poor babies are somewhat feral.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for three children."

3 Kids Abandoned in Filthy, Garbage-Filled Michigan Home for 4 Years, Mom Arrested: Police

Police found a boy, 15, and his two sisters, aged 12 and 13, “living alone in absolute squalor” during a welfare check at a home in Pontiac on Friday, Feb. 14, the Oakland County sheriff’s office announced in a press release

people.com

 

[doublestop]

What about other things needed for daily living? Toilet paper, for example. Clothes for children who would have grown taller in 4 years. I wonder if she dropped that of too, or if they just made do without.

 

[LoveyG]

What about other things needed for daily living? Toilet paper, for example. Clothes for children who would have grown taller in 4 years. I wonder if she dropped that of too, or if they just made do without.

Yes, and transitioning from children to teens. Did the girls get any sanitary supplies? Any instructions or counsel? Imagine starting menses in an environment like that with no help.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2025/02/18/oakland-county-sheriff-sends-alleged-pontiac-mom-neglect-case-to-prosecutor/79071413007/

Sheriff: Abandoned Oakland County kids were left to share loaf of bread for 3-4 days

Toward the end of their time living alone after being abandoned by their mother, three Oakland County children were only given a loaf of bread to share, and it was supposed to last them three to four days, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

www.clickondetroit.com

 

[tlcya]

What about other things needed for daily living? Toilet paper, for example. Clothes for children who would have grown taller in 4 years. I wonder if she dropped that of too, or if they just made do without.

articles have stated things like toiletries (soap shampoo toothpaste) and TP were NOT being delivered. literally just some food now and then apparently.

 

[tlcya]

yes... and she has been paying rent for most of this time and dropping off food...so does she have one or more other families? illegal employment? mental illness? weird

I am guessing none of the above. I think it is simply that the kids were inconvenient and she wanted to live a lifestyle unencumbered by her kids. I am betting she was getting benefits for those kids. But clearly wasn't spending the money to benefit them.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I live in Oakland County just about 3 or 4 miles south of Pontiac where these children were living in squalor. How could neighbors not have known that something like this was going on in the townhome community? Seems to me that the unit where the children were living would have smelled horrible and that nearby neighbors would have caught a whiff of the odor. And this went on for several years? I'm glad that the children are out of this deplorable living environment, but there are surely many questions to be answered about how this went on for so long with no one knowing about it.

 

[Jo in Calif]

During their yearslong abandonment, the kids didn’t leave the house, which has some wondering why no one questioned it when the children stopped showing up to school.

Bouchard said that this happening during the COVID-19 pandemic played a bit of a part when it came down to school communications, but said that a gap in the state’s school code was what allowed for this to happen.

In this case, no one ever knew the kids were missing because of a school transfer that never happened.

One school allegedly received a request for records from another Pontiac school, but never verified that the information was obtained.

So, when the children didn’t show up to the school they had been at, they were dropped off the enrollment list since another school had requested their transcripts.

How didn’t schools notice that 3 Oakland County kids were abandoned?

Three Oakland County kids didn’t attend school for years after they were abandoned by their mother and left to live alone. Here's how the schools didn't notice what was happening.

www.clickondetroit.com

 

[jennytrevor]

Were the children able to open the door to retrieve the instacart food? If so, I find it very surprising no child left to go find help at some point, as we have seen in other cases. I wonder if they had early encounters with neighbors that were shrugged off.

 

[amandab]

Are we safe to assume that the "mom" was paying the utility bills, keeping the lights and heat on?

 

[Jo in Calif]

Are we safe to assume that the "mom" was paying the utility bills, keeping the lights and heat on?

There is a possibility that utilities were included in the rent.

 

[jennytrevor]

There is a possibility that utilities were included in the rent.

It was stated the children watched TV and played video games all day, so they had electricity. Not sure about heat bc that could be gas.

 

[tlcya]

Were the children able to open the door to retrieve the instacart food? If so, I find it very surprising no child left to go find help at some point, as we have seen in other cases. I wonder if they had early encounters with neighbors that were shrugged off.

I strongly suspect this mother threatened the children, who were around 11, 9 and 8 at the time she abandoned them, that if they called attention to themselves in any way they would be placed in foster care, jail or worse.

It's possible utilities were included in the rent that she stopped paying in October 2024. If not then it is safe to assume she allowed those to be cut off at around the same time she stopped paying the rent. If the toilet wasn't working the kids couldn't exactly call the landlord or a plumber I doubt they even had a working phone in that hell.

The "mother" didn't provide basic toiletries, no paper goods, no clothes, no garbage bags, doubt she even had garbage service anymore, so there, in that filth those children lived their small little lives, alone.

 

[tlcya]

honestly, I half wonder if news stories the case of Gloria Williams abandoning the body of her murdered son and her still living children in a Houston apartment to fend for themselves isn't what inspired this mother to abandon her kids. That case broke in late October of 2021.

This unnamed mother abandoned her kids sometime in 2020 or 2021. She may well have seen the news and a light bulb went off. Look, if I do this right and scare the bejeesus out of the kids so they don't tell like that other lady's kid finally did, I can live child free and lose all this responsibility.

Over time the kids became literally out of sight out of mind. Which is why she ultimately stopped paying rent on the townhome, started sending minimal food (loaf of bread). Because she actually forgot how despicable what she was doing was and that the consequences would be serious if world ever found out.

 

[jennytrevor]

I strongly suspect this mother threatened the children, who were around 11, 9 and 8 at the time she abandoned them, that if they called attention to themselves in any way they would be placed in foster care, jail or worse.

It's possible utilities were included in the rent that she stopped paying in October 2024. If not then it is safe to assume she allowed those to be cut off at around the same time she stopped paying the rent. If the toilet wasn't working the kids couldn't exactly call the landlord or a plumber I doubt they even had a working phone in that hell.

The "mother" didn't provide basic toiletries, no paper goods, no clothes, no garbage bags, doubt she even had garbage service anymore, so there, in that filth those children lived their small little lives, alone.

I totally agree that the mother threatened them into submission, I am just still surprised they didn’t leave at some point for help. While it’s true they may have been raised with little to no teaching on life skills, these kids still attended school for a while and so had encountered a normal functional way living. It’s terrifying how much psychological power one can have over others. It’s scary and tragic to think of what she may have done to them in the past to make them believe her threats.

<modsnip: No known fact to support such speculation>

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Child only left Oakland County home twice during yearslong abandonment, sheriff says

Three children were left to live alone in a Pontiac home for years after allegedly being abandoned by their mother, and during that time, only one child ever stepped outside.

www.clickondetroit.com