After 90 hours of soul-crushing work, crews finished the cleanup at the Blackstone, Massachusetts, house of horrors, a $25,000 project after three dead infants and four living children were found among deplorable conditions.
The bill has been sent to the home's owners, believed to be the sister of the man believed to be the father of the children.
"Dresses, clothing, mattresses, soiled diapers," listed Bill Walsh of the town's Department of Public Health. "Anything that was biohazard, it's been totally flushed out."
Crews took the tools of their trade with them - their shovels, brooms, sledgehammers and vacuums.
"I just can't believe it. Going through it, seeing what I just saw, after it's been cleaned up," said Walsh. "And you still could not live in there."
The first floor of the house has been stripped. There is no sign of the vermin, animal remains or baby bottles filled with maggots that the neighbor who found the children living in squalor described.
Town officials, who have seen plenty in their decades on the job, have been shaken.
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"I'm sick to my stomach, I'm telling you. You don't want to go in there. The smell is terrible," said Town Administrator Daniel Keyes. "I don't know how they lived there. I just feel so bad for those children that are still with us."
A 5-month-old baby, a 3-year-old toddler, a 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl lived in the home. State officials removed them from the home last month.
Their mother, 31-year-old Erika Murray, is behind bars. She pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and fetal death concealment.
Walsh said the town "absolutely" did not fail.
"The town did their job," he said. "If you look at the house in its current condition, this is how - if you drove by, this is what you'd see. No debris in the driveway, nothing whatsoever."
