Authorities said they stumbled upon the house, which they described as squalid and unsafe, after receiving a call on March 31 about a missing 12-year-old. When police found the boy and brought him home, they searched the residence and found nine other children, whom they say they then “rescued from horrible living conditions.”
Rotten food and feces covered some floors, while other areas of the home were impassable, Hurlbut said Monday. A video taken from inside the house shows filthy rooms filled with piles of toys and clothes, doors pulled off their hinges, and mattresses pushed up against the walls.
“They were malnourished and not well cared for in any manner,” Hurlbut told BuzzFeed News Tuesday. “Police were appalled by the environment they found them in.”
Officers immediately took the children and placed them in protective custody and arrested Rogers, charging her with neglect. She was released after posting $10,000 bail.
Rogers pushed back against the police’s characterizations of the home, explaining that she had torn apart her house while looking for her missing son.
“Fear set in … that my son was missing,” she told reporters, according to CBS News. “So I ripped up my whole house … tore everything out of the closet, lifted up the beds.”
Laura Anthony✔@LauraAnthony7
#DEVELOPING Fairfield mother of 10 children allegedly abused by her and her husband shared this photo of her six oldest with us. #abc7now
“I always wondered how could people know that something like that was going on but we truly never even knew the kids were there,” Henick sighed. “We’ve all been texting about it and no one knew. It’s terrible.”