Behind a fence and red tape is what has been described as an unimaginable house of horrors.
The home at 23 St. Paul Street in Blackstone, Massachusetts, where the remains of three infants were found and four children were taken into state custody, will be torn down, according to a unanimous vote taken by the town’s board of health Tuesday night.
The remains of several dead animals were also found at the home, the walls of which were smeared with feces. Erika Murray, the 31-year-old mother of the children, is charged with fetal death concealment and child endangerment. She is being held without bail.
"How anybody could live in a structure like that, where you had vermin and you had dog feces and human feces on the walls and ceilings, in the attic, it was just a horrendous scene," said Health Inspector Bill Walsh.
The property's owner, Kristina Rivera, the sister of the man living inside the home with Murray, did not show up to the board meeting, leaving town officials to determine she had essentially abandoned the home.
"We have given Miss Rivera ample notice and opportunity to come before this board to express her wishes, desires, concerns, we have heard nothing," said Town Counsel Patrick Costello.
Walsh said the town looked into ways to salvage any part of the home, but could not foresee a way to get rid of the smell, filth and general health hazard to the community without complete demolition.
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"What we are talking about is complete removal of all floors, walls, ceilings, roof and foundation to alleviate the remainder of the mold, bacteria and/or diseases," he said.
The plan is to tear down the home to the foundation and then fill the foundation to ground level, essentially ridding the town of what Walsh called a "scar on the psyche of the neighborhood."
"We’re all in a healing process right now and I hope over the next four, eight and twelve weeks that we’ll move on with this," said Administrator Dan Keyes.
Rivera now has seven days to show she has at least scheduled demolition, or the town will charge her $500 per day until it can demolish the home.
The cost to demolish the house is estimated between $12,000 and $20,000. That will be added to the more than $20,000 already spent to clean the home and the yet-to-be-estimated police overtime.
A lien will be put on the home, and if still unpaid after two years, it would go on Rivera's taxes.
The living children were aged between 5 months and 13 years. The woman who first called police said she found two children "completely covered in feces."
