A woman who entered a home in Blackstone, Massachusetts, and found neglected children describes her experience as horrific, explaining that the images will never leave her.
Three dead infants were found in the house on St. Paul Street, infested with vermin and littered with soiled diapers, last week. Four living children, aged between 6 months and 13 years, were also found living amid the squalor.
Monday afternoon, 21 containers of biohazardous materials were taken out of the house. Crews believe they will fill up to four Dumpsters.
The witness, who called police, said that a 10-year-old boy who lived in the house came to her and asked her how to get a baby to stop crying.
"She was lying in the middle of the bed, completely covered in feces," said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified, of the baby she found in the home. "Feces all on the wall. I was walking on dirty diapers to get to her."
The older child she found was also in poor condition, the woman said.
"He was sitting on a mattress, completely sunk in with feces, completely covered - his hair, his clothes, everything - he was rocking back and forth," she said. "No communication at all with me. It was almost like he didn't know how to talk."
Thirty-one-year-old Erika Murray was arrested Thursday. She has been held without bail, charged with fetal death concealment and child endangerment.
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When the neighbor went outside, she said she found Murray sitting on the sidewalk.
"She just kind of laughed it off and shrugged her shoulders and said, 'I don't know,'" said the woman.
Murray's attorney told the Boston Globe that she had given birth to her two youngest children in secret, fearful of the response of her boyfriend, who had told her he didn't want any more children. According to Keith Halpern, Murray pretended she was babysitting them.
Halpern said he was hopeful that tests would show that the dead infants were stillborn.
Blackstone-Millville Regional School District Superintendent Allen Himmelberger said that the two oldest children living in the home were enrolled through June, but they had not been enrolled for the 2014-15 school year.
The woman who says she found the children living in neglect cried when recalling the conditions. She says she was told not to touch the children until police arrived.
"When the police got there, I said, 'Can I pick up the baby?' And he said, 'If that's what you want to do.' So I picked up the little one," she said. "I couldn't find anything to wipe her with, so I took my shirt off."
The remains of several dead animals were also found at the home.
Uxbridge District Court released photos from inside the home. Cluttered objects and marijuana can be seen.
