Disturbing, fresh details about the squalor and abuse endured by 11 children in the Texas ‘house of horrors’ have emerged in a new police report.
According to testimony given by two of the children rescued from what appeared to be a regular house in a non-descript street in suburban Dayton, the victims were bound down to dirty mattresses, forced to sleep in rooms with no air and no light, and routinely beaten.
Nine of the 11 were between the ages of five months and six years. They were all being neglected and abused in the house where ten adults also lived, the report shows.
Meanwhile, it also emerged today that Child Protection Services, which took the children into emergency custody after they were seized on January 24, knew about the sordid living conditions as early as 2005.
The Houston Chronicle detailed the contents of the horrific report, which shows that eight of the children were found tied up in a single dark room filled with wall-to-wall mattresses. They were often bound.
Investigators also found an 11-year-old boy covered in bruises and thumbprints indicating a life of abuse.
They all lived inside a relatively normal-looking house in a middle-class neighbourhood, though the windows were all covered by bed sheets and towels hung as crude curtains.
The 11 children found in the Texas home were a five-month-old boy, an eight-month-old boy, a one-year-old boy, a boy and girl, both two, a three-year-old girl, another boy and girl who were both four, a legally blind five-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, and an 11-year-old boy.
The blind girl, who turned six while in foster care, is also thought to be autistic and have a ‘lack of focus,’ according to the affidavit. Since she has been in CPS custody, she hasn’t uttered a word.
However, the two older boys haven’t been quiet about the types of hardships they endured. The eight-year-old boy told a caseworker that he spent many days locked in a small room – up to three days – all the time, without food.
The 11-year-old also described how all of the children were tied down with harnesses to the mattresses every night, and were sometimes bound to their beds during daylight.
Investigators noted that the house’s refrigerator was ‘basically empty,’ save two loaves of bread in the freezer, the Houston Chronicle reported.
None of the children had been to school. The 11-year-old boy said the last time he saw a classroom was several years ago.
While the affidavit shows neither boy said they were sexually abused, it provides little insight as to why the 11-year-old had missing teeth and a black eye.
The house is owned by the children’s maternal grandparents, Odice Smith and Tanda Marsh-Smith.
According to the CPS affidavit, Ms Marsh-Smith had six children taken from her in the 1980s, while she was living in Michigan. Authorities in the state wouldn’t release further details about the incident.
On February 9, Katherine Marsh, the mother of the 11-year-old and the six-year-old autistic girl, ‘denied each and every, all and singular, the allegations contained’ in the CPS petition for custody, court records show.
A hearing to address the future of the children will take place on March 30, The Dayton News reported.
None of the names of the adults staying in the home- some of whom were the parents of the neglected children- have been released, and the children’s full names will not be because of their ages.
All of the children were cousins and born to seven different sets of parents.
Protective services found that all 11 children lived in the same 10 foot by 10 foot bedroom which had no electricity and boarded up windows.
The five-month-old and eight-month-old boys were taken to the hospital to be treated for pneumonia and several of the children showed signs of abuse.
One of the abused boys said the adults regularly choked him and he had a black eye, a missing tooth, and fingerprint marks on his forearms showing a tight and frequent grip.
When questioned, the adults living in the house saw no problem with the fact that they regularly tied the children up for two to three hours during the day and longer at night.
They said they were doing it ‘for their safety’ though there was no rationale given to explain.
None of the children attended school, and many neighbors had no idea that there were even children in the home because there was no sign of them. They never saw kids being put in car seats or bikes scattered across the front lawn.
Douglas Waller, who claims to be the father of a 2-year-old girl named Ryan who was living in the house with her mother and grandparents, was distraught at the news.
‘It is very, very disturbing when you figure that your daughter or son is safe with their grandmother and come to find out that they’re not,’ he told local news station KHOU.com.
‘It makes me want to just grab a hold of somebody and just slap them,’ he continued.
Because the reports do not list the names of the adults found living in the house, it is difficult to establish their relationships to one another.
Surprisingly, no criminal charges have been placed against any of the adults from this neglect and abuse.
Two were 16-year-old male runaways who lived in the house after leaving their Houston foster homes. One of the boys had heard from his older brother that that the house ‘was fun’.
One of the other male adults, Mark E. Marsh III, was listed in the sex offender registry as living in the house. He was convicted of having criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl over a decade ago.
