A Michigan mother has been charged with neglecting her two small, special needs children after they were found home alone — one of them eating raw, rotten meat because they were so hungry.
Flint Township Police said its officers responded to the home for a welfare chack and found the children alone in utterly disgusting conditions.
“When officers crossed the threshold, it felt less like entering a home and more like stepping into abandonment itself,” the department said in a Facebook post. “Trash covered the floors so thickly they couldn’t take a normal step. Every movement required careful tiptoeing through someone else’s neglect. A faucet ran endlessly, water spilling onto the floor like a forgotten fountain, the sound echoing through rooms that had gone far too long without adult presence.”
Officers said a faucet was left running, and feces was smeared on the walls “at a child’s height.” The children, whose ages weren’t given, had no clean clothes and no food available. Additionally, there was no phone or other way for the children to reach anyone outside the home.
While one child was eating the raw, spoiled meat, the officers found the other child curled up on the floor of the bedroom.
Police did not describe the children’s special needs or say how long they had been left alone except in vague terms.
“Their mother, the person who should have been their fiercest protector, the one voice meant to calm their fears and meet their needs, walked away,” police said. “No caregiver stepping in, no safeguards. Just absence.”
Police said a neighbor had called 911 requesting the welfare check. They eventually found the children’s mother, Krystal Farmer, and she has been charged with child abandonment, child abuse, and lying to a peace officer.
She was arraigned on Saturday, and, despite the almost poetic post on the police department’s Facebook page, was given a mere $64,000 bond, WNEM said. Her next court date is March 5.
The children are now safe, police said, although they did not say where.
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[Featured image: Flint Township Police Department. Inset: Krystal Farmer/Genesee County Sheriff’s Office]
