Mom charged with first-degree child abuse in case of 3 children who lived in squalor

A 34-year-year-old Pontiac woman was charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse for allegedly abandoning her three children in 2020 and forcing them to live alone in squalor for five years in what officials have described as a "horrifying" case of abuse and neglect.

"Obviously, the trauma here is significant," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in announcing the charges. "We say a lot, 'This is the worst I’ve ever seen,' and I’ve stopped saying that ... it was unbelievable what they were living with for years."

The mother is Kelli Bryant − a woman described by the prosecutor as someone who put fear in her children, forced them to live in conditions not fit for any living creature, concealed all this from her family and friends, and deprived her children of the one thing they needed most: love.

"What stands out most to me is no love. There was nobody there to care for them, nobody physically present to let them know that they were safe and they were loved," said McDonald, who also noted the mother left her children with no hygiene products.

McDonald announced the charges five days after Oakland County sheriff's deputies discovered the children — ages 12, 13, and 15 — living in what has been described by officials as "horrifying" living conditions: The toilet didn't work. Feces were found throughout the house. Garbage was piled as high as 4 feet in some rooms. And two of the children slept on pizza boxes.

According to McDonald, when the children were brought to the hospital after their rescue by sheriff's deputies Friday, they struggled to brush their teeth and flush the toilet because they hadn't done so in so long.

She said each of the children had their own phones, and that the 15-year-old son would text his mother when food supplies ran now. But the three siblings had not had any physical contact with their mother since she abandoned them years ago, nor access to any hygiene products. And food was not always being dropped off weekly, she said, correcting prior information that food was getting dropped off once a week by the mother or a food service company.

"During the years they were there, the mom didn’t provide toilet paper, soap or shampoo," McDonald said, adding the mom also instructed the kids not to ever answer the door, or leave the house.

"The children were afraid," McDonald said, stressing the mom kept much of this a secret. "She concealed the children from family and friends."

And she lied about who was caring for them, McDonald added.

While no charges have been filed against any other individuals, McDonald said "that does not mean that won’t happen in the future."

"There is plenty of responsibility to go around for how this happened," McDonald said. But, she stressed: "They were entrusted to their mother ... there must be consequences for those actions."

According to McDonald and the sheriff's office the two youngest siblings — both girls — never left the house in almost five years, and the 15-year-old brother only left twice: once to check the mail, another time to touch the grass.

The childrens' father was not involved in their lives as he had been in prison in prior years, though he did try to reconnect with the kids and get visitation rights following his prison release, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. But as of 2022, his wife wouldn't let him, and by then the children were already living alone in a condo on the otherwise quaint community on Lydia Lane.

According to the sheriff's office, the children were discovered on Friday after the landlord reached out and told deputies there had been no communication with the mother since December, and rent hadn't been paid since October. So the landlord got concerned that something may be wrong and contacted authorities.

On Friday, sheriff's deputies went to the home and found the children, who had matted hair and toenails so long that they struggled to walk. The mother was arrested that same day and is currently in the Oakland County Jail.

The children have been placed with a family member following intervention from Child Protective Services. According to Bouchard, the children had no schooling since they were abandoned between the spring and summer of 2020 — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a press conference Tuesday, Bouchard sought to explain how the children fell of the schools' radar, noting that the Pontiac School District did receive a request for the students' transcripts from another school. But the district never got confirmation that the children ever enrolled in another school, he said. And after the children didn't show up for school, the Pontiac district dropped them from enrollment, without anyone knowing where the children ended up.

The Pontiac School District was not available for comment Tuesday.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer whether any complaints were ever filed to CPS about the children, citing privacy concerns and agency policy not to comment on juvenile matters.

McDonald urged anyone who suspects or has information about child abuse, to call the CPS hotline at 855-444-3391.