The Michigan mother who police say abandoned her children in a home for years and left them living in filth is headed to trial.
Kelli Bryant, 34, of Pontiac, faces three counts of first-degree child abuse as well as charges of welfare fraud in the case, according to clickondetroit.
In February, police found the three children, who were 15, 13, and 12 at the time, living in a home in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac. Police said the children had been abandoned in 2020 or 2021, according to police, and had survived on food that would be left at the door.
Inside the home, police found garbage piled as high as four feet. The house was covered in mold and human waste, with the toliet overflowing with human feces and human waste also found in the bathtub. Hazmat suits were used to process the scene once the children were removed.
Police stated that the 15-year-old boy slept on a mattress on the floor, and the two younger girls slept on pizza boxes.
"I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at the time. "This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for three children."
At a preliminary hearing, a pediatrician testified that the children's routine was to wake up, use their phone or tablet, sleep and eat food when it was provided to them. The doctor said it was unclear when the children slept and they were not allowed to go outside of the home, the station reported.
"They have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years. The far-reaching consequences of this abuse must be acknowledged," Bouchard said.
Police went to the home on a welfare check because the landlord had not heard from Bryant since December and she had last been paid rent in October.
