I wanted to see if there was any more information online about the woman in the newspaper article.
I found info at four websites:
newspaper "The Courier-Journal"
published in Louisville, Kentucky
www.courier-journal.comThey have TWO slightly different articles on this topic --
One online article is dated April 7, 2009
and the other online article is dated April 8, 2009.
April 7 version:
www.courier-journal.com/article/20090407/ZONE07/90407019/-1/ARCHIVESApril 8 version:
www.courier-journal.com/article/20090408/NEWS01/904080401
television Channel 11 -- KTHV
broadcasting from Little Rock, Arkansas
www.todaysthv.comTheir coverage of this topic is in the link that Dayeanu already posted in the opening post on page one of this thread.
That link shows a text article, a slide show of photos, and a video news report.
www.todaysthv.com/news/natInt/story.aspx?storyid=83039NOTE: there are "comments" from website readers that are posted to the article.
There are the usual comments disparaging of the squalorer. However, one commenter pointed out that the squalor might be due to depression.
television Channel 32 -- WLKY
broadcasting from Louisville, Kentucky
www.wlky.comPOSTED: 5:28 pm EDT April 6, 2009
UPDATED: 8:25 am EDT April 7, 2009
They have one single text article and a video.
www.wlky.com/news/19109533/detail.htmlNOTE: there are "comments" from website readers that are posted to the article.
Interestingly one commenter asks: when was the home filmed? The commenter wanted to know why there was a several-day delay between the date of arrest and the date of video posted to news website. The commenter wondered if someone (perhaps one of the anonymous neighbors?) had staged the squalor for the cameras. Interesting question.
television Channel 11 -- WHAS
broadcasting from Louisville, Kentucky
www.whas11.comThey have a single text article.
NOTE: there are "comments" from website readers that are posted to the article.
There are comments posted from a person claiming to be a relative of the children's father, who gives his inside scoop and perspective on the family situation. No way of knowing if what he says is accurate. (More on that below in my section marked "More info on entire family").
www.whas11.com/news/local/stories/whas11-top-090406-childrenfilth.abbe410f.html?so=TimeStampAscending#slcgm_comments_anchor
NOTE: The headlines from each site vary widely.
from television Channel 11 -- WHAS of Kentucky:
- HEADLINE: "Louisville woman in jail after children found covered in filth"
- Actual article: "A Louisville woman is behind bars after police say they found her three children living in filth."
NOTICE:
Actual article says ONLY: this is what the police claim about the HOME.
Yet the HEADLINE says the CHILDREN were filthy.
from the newspaper The Courier-Journal:
- April 7 HEADLINE: "Mother of 3 arrested after home found uninhabitable"
- April 8 HEADLINE: "Filthy home prompts mother's arrest"
- Actual article: "Louisville Metro Police has arrested a mother of three children after officers found the family’s home to be uninhabitable."
From television Channel 11 -- KTHV of Arkansas:
- HEADLINE: "Kentucky Woman Allows Kids To Live In Filth"
- Actual article: "A Kentucky mother is accused of keeping her children in a house of filth. Louisville police say the home was cluttered with garbage, dishes, rotten food and dog feces."
Was it "cluttered" or was it "filth"? Most likely the news media does not see the differences in terminology that we make on our squalor forums here.
Here follows what I was able to glean from those sources:
More info on the CHILDREN:Children aged 3, 4 and 6.
One report said that the children were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.
Another report said: "The children are now at the Home of the Innocents, while the case against their mother moves forward."
I googled and found the website of "the Home of the Innocents".
www.homeoftheinnocents.orgIt's a nice website. The Home of the Innocents sounds nice.
I would, of course, make the general caveat that ANY person or organization can create a website that makes themselves sound wonderful.
I have no idea what the place is really like.
(I say this about ALL websites I visit).
The Home of the Innocents sounds very nice from their website promotion.
But I will remain "neutral" as to whether it's a good or bad place for the children.
I would never know what it's really like -- unless I actually spent some time as a child living there, or as a staffperson working there.
The incident occurred on April 3, 2009.
The last news report was several days later.
It doesn't say where the children are NOW.
repeating what I said in my section above on the children:
Near the end of one of the video reports, the news reporter said that ...
according to police reports, this was the SECOND TIME the children had been removed from the home by Child Protective Services -- for the same cause.
BUT it doesn't say what the "cause" was --
was it because of the squalor, or because of the danger of domestic violence?
It says the children had been removed once before.
It doesn't say if the mother had ever been arrested or charged before.
UPDATE: see the section below marked
"more info on entire family". Supposedly a relative has a guess as to where the children might eventually be placed.
More info on the "FATHER" in the news story:The police referred to the home as the woman's home. (They used HER last name).
They didn't say where the man lived.
Police officers went to her home about 2 pm on Friday.
The "father" of the children was wanted on domestic violence charges.
Note that the news did not specify if the man had been charged with domestic violence against the woman/children in the story, OR .... if he had been charged with domestic violence against any other person. All it says is that he was "wanted on domestic violence charges."
Sequence of events -- pieced together from the news reports:
The man was wanted on domestic violence charges.
On Friday afternoon, April 3, 2009, the man was riding a bicycle near the woman's house.
The police spotted him and began to chase him.
The man noticed that the police had spotted him and, in reaction to that, he entered the woman's house.
In one news report, the man ran into the woman's house.
In a different news report, the man jumped through a ground-level window into the woman's house.
The police kept chasing him and they entered the house.
By that time, the man had run upstairs.
When the police entered the house, the man jumped out of an upper-level window and ran off.
The police were unable to catch him.
As of the time of the news reports (a few days after the incident), the police had been unable to find the man. He was still "on the loose".
The policeman said that the man will face additional charges for "running from police".
The news reports say that the man was 23 years old, and that he was the father of all three children.
There was no clarification as to where he lived. However, the news reports indicated that the man entered the woman's home. This would imply that it wasn't his home.
So perhaps he didn't live there but visited occasionally?
Or perhaps he USED TO live there, but the woman had kicked him out and had filed charges against him for abuse?
Did she allow him to visit?
Or did she have a restraining order against him?
On the day of the incident, did she allow him in, or did he force his way in?
UNKNOWN.
He had previously been charged with "domestic violence". Most likely, this charge was for violence against the woman and/or her children. But, theoretically, it could have been charges for violence against an unrelated person in a different residence. Who knows?
More info on the MOTHER in the news story:She was arrested Friday afternoon, April 3, 2009
She was charged with "three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor".
She was released from Metro Corrections on her own recognizance early Saturday morning April 4, 2009, according to Pam Windsor, a corrections spokeswoman.
So she was arrested in the afternoon, spent the night in jail, and was released the following morning.
The children were initially placed in a temporary home/shelter (as I mentioned above), "while the case against their mother moves forward."
Not sure where the children are now, but it sounds like the police intend to pursue a case against the mother.
According to one of the news reports, if she is found guilty, she will face up to one year in prison and a $500.00 fine.
IMPORTANT:
Near the end of one of the video reports, the news reporter said that ...
according to police reports, this was the SECOND TIME that the children had been removed from the home by Child Protective Services -- for the same cause.
BUT it doesn't say what the "cause" was --
was it because of the squalor, or because of the danger of domestic violence?
One of the articles says: Police say she has had her children removed from the home before "under similar circumstances".
Again, I ask: what "similar circumstances"?
Was it for the domestic-violence-accused father barging in,
or was it for the mother's squalor?
More info on ENTIRE FAMILY: - Mother: Aged 23
- Father: Aged 23
- Children: Aged 3, 4 and 6
- Supposedly, the man is the father of all three children.
- This means that the first child was born when the parents were 17 years old.
- The father is wanted on domestic violence charges.
- As stated above, it SEEMS that the father was not currently living at the mother's residence. Unknown if he ever did.
- Three dogs (ages and sizes not mentioned) found at the mother's home. (see "more info on pets" below).
NOTE: The whas11.com article has comments posted from a person claiming to be a relative of the children's father, who gives his inside scoop and perspective on the family situation. No way of knowing if what he says is accurate.
He claims to be a cousin of the children's father. He says the children were removed once before and were given to their mother's aunt and uncle the first time "until she cleaned up her act".
He has heard talk that the children will be going to the mother's OTHER aunt and uncle "who are more fit to take care of them". He didn't seem to be certain about this. He posted this on April 7 and said the court hearing would be on April 8.
He said he is disappointed with BOTH the father and the mother of the children and that "No child should endure the smell and filth of feces and garbage."
He also said: "noone knew how bad it was there. We never go over there -- they usually come see all of us -- and if we knew how bad it was there we would have taken those kids a long time ago. When we plan to go visit, she usually just calls and says shes coming over to our house before we can leave."
He expressed that he wished that the children had been given to a relative of the father's (most likely because he himself is a relative of the father's ?) but he says he loves the kids and is content that they will probably go live with the mother's relatives. His main concern is that "those children should be kept away from their mother."
NOTE: The commenter was commenting on one of the earlier news articles, which did NOT mention the father's domestic violence. That article mentioned only the mother's squalor. The commenter may not have been aware of the domestic violence charges against the father.
Again, his comments were posted in response to a newspaper article. They could have been posted by ANYONE, so there is no way to verify their accuracy.
Also, even if the comments were really posted by a relative of the father, we have no way of knowing if the viewpoint was accurate or biased.
More info on PETS:One news report said there were "multiple dogs on the property".
(Cough, cough. Aside comment from Lioness:
Note that "multiple dogs" means "more than one".
Could be two dogs. Could be a hundred dogs.)
A different news report specified that there were THREE dogs.
One of the text articles on one website said that one dog had escaped from the home when the police came, and then suffered for hours before it died. No further info.
HOWEVER: MORE INFO: From the end of the WKLY video: A neighbor who didn't wish to be identified said that one of the dogs "escaped from the home when the police came AND WAS HIT BY A CAR -- and then suffered for hours before it died." This quote is quoting the news reporter's words. The reporter was paraphrasing what the neighbor said.
Rather amazing that one news report left out the significant info that the dog was HIT BY A CAR. (Without that info, you might have thought that the cause of death was illness or malnourishment or prior mistreatment). GAH! This is the problem with "snippets of information".
I can see how the dog could have escaped if the father in the news article entered the home by smashing through a downstairs window, and then the police came storming in the window or front door to chase after him. And then the police were there looking at the squalor. Plenty of open doors and chaos. No wonder the dog fled.
I found it interesting that the neighbor said the dog had "escaped". That would imply that the dogs didn't normally wander the neighborhood. Wouldn't it?
So, during the chaos, one dog escaped the house, was hit by a car, and then suffered horribly until he/she died. How tragic!
There was no further info about this particular dog. Perhaps the mother in the news article knew that her dog had escaped, and felt frantic, but wasn't able to go find her dog because the police had arrested her? Did she know that her dog had been hit by a car? Did the police let the woman go help her dog? Or was she forced to abandon her pets when she was taken away? Was the mother already arrested and taken AWAY from the home BEFORE the dog died? Does she even know that her dog escaped? Does she know her dog was hit by a car? Does she know her dog died? I'm not clear WHERE the dog died -- was the dog left in the street to die? Who knows? None of this was clarified in the report.
Regarding DOG FECES in the home: All the news reports mentioned this.
My questions:
Were the dogs potty-trained?
Were the dogs taken outside regularly to go potty?
Were the dogs having occasional potty accidents in the home, but generally only pottied outside?
Was the mother so overwhelmed by all the squalor that she was unable to see the occasional feces hidden in piles of trash?
Or were the dogs forced to remain inside all the time?
Was the indoor pottying a regular occurrence?
WE DON'T KNOW -- because the news reports did not mention any of this.
Bottom line:
The news reports mentioned dog feces.
NOTE: None of the reports said how much dog feces there were.
It could have been very little -- one day's worth of feces.
It could have been a lot -- one year's worth of feces.
All we know is that the policeman said there were dog feces present.
The policeman did say that in SOME parts of the home, the trash was knee-deep. And he couldn't take a step without being concerned about stepping in trash or dog feces.
He didn't specify the percentage of trash vs. feces.
NONE of the reports mentioned ODOR in the home!
Were the dogs in good health?
The news reports didn't say.
NOTE:
One news report said that the family's dogs were taken by animal services. It doesn't say if this was temporary or permanent.
The policeman said that the mother may face additional animal cruelty charges.
The news report mentioned only the mother's name regarding this.
The father's name was not mentioned regarding possible animal cruelty charges.
The policeman didn't say WHY he might charge the mother with animal cruelty.
Was it because the house was so messy?
Were the dogs healthy?
Or were the dogs malnourished or beaten or very ill?
He didn't say.
More info on CONDITION OF THE HOUSE:One thing I found extremely strange: Nowhere was there ANY mention of odor. The policeman didn't mention odor. Whoever videoed the home didn't mention odor.
Although I personally was born without a sense of smell (odd birth defect), I do know that squalor smells bad to most people.
This makes me wonder how long the squalor had been sitting. This makes me wonder how much dog feces there really was.
Reports said that the bathtub and sinks were full of trash and dishes. It doesn't sound like she was washing dishes in the bathtub, if there was really trash in the bathtub too.
The policeman made the ASSUMPTION that the children were never bathed. This was because the bathtub(s) was (were) full and unusable. We have no way of knowing if the mother brought the children elsewhere to bathe them. Or perhaps she emptied and cleaned the bathtubs to bathe the children each time, and then refilled the bathtubs with junk afterwards? We have no way of knowing.
But the report didn't say the plumbing was broken. Presumably the toilets worked.
Quote: "Police say they found three children living inside the home covered in trash, food, dirty dishes and animal feces covering the second floor. Police say there were broken windows with exposed glass and both bath tubs and sinks filled with trash."
Other reports DON'T say the mess was on the second floor. Only one of the news outlets mentions mess being on second floor.
Broken windows with exposed glass? Interesting. The father was obviously used to jumping in and out of windows (see "more info on father" above).
You can see from one video that there was a cleared area on the floor. There was clearly an area set aside on the floor for people to sit and eat. One of the news reports said the children were found by the police sitting on the floor eating.
To me, this says that the mother had TRIED to clear some space. Who knows if she owned a table or not? Perhaps it was covered with stuff?
REGARDING THE NEWS MEDIA:I noticed that the news media based 90% of their reports on whatever the one policeman said. I read all the articles and viewed all the videos. They all just quoted the policeman. (The policeman you saw in the video on the todaysthv.com link.) He was clearly shocked by what he saw. So the news media fed on that emotion.
The news media mentioned things that were "in the police report". I got the impression that they didn't actually READ the police report. I got the impression they just went with whatever the policeman said was in the report. Which means that slight nuances may have been inadvertently changed.
The rest of the info was obtained from interviewing one or two neighbor(s). One neighbor was the one who said that the mother was crying hysterically because CPS was coming, and this same neighbor being the one who said made the cryptic comment implying that the mother wasn't abandoning the squalor but somehow attempting to clean it up.
The other mention of a neighbor was the one who commented about the dog being hit by a car -- the dog was hit after escaping during the chaos of the police visit. It doesn't say if this was the same neighbor or a different neighbor.
I noticed that the news media did not attempt to interview any of the family members.
There was one article that quoted the Department of Corrections saying the mother had been released on her own recognizance. But only one news article had that report.
In general, the news media went with whatever the policeman told them.
I have no clue who videoed the interior of the home. The media? The police?
More info about Mother's INTERACTION with others:Some of you here at SOS asked the following questions:
- Did the mother take any responsibility for the situation?
- Was the mother ever willing to reach out for help?
- Had the mother ever tried to clean up?
- Did the mother even care about her children?
- Had any family or friends ever offered to help?
Reporter Alcock asked Police Sergeant Johnson, "Did {the mother} say anything in her defense of those conditions?" He replied "No, she had no excuse for why the house was in that condition at all."
I found this to be very interesting. The mother did not try to make excuses.
A neighbor, who doesn't wish to be identified, says while police were inside, {the mother} came outside asking her to help. "She just come out hysterically crying and was like will you take my kids, CPS is going to take my kids."
The mother was crying hysterically, and asked her neighbor to care for the children, so that CPS wouldn't take the children. To me, that sounds like the mother was very worried and concerned about the children.
Reporter Alcock asked the same neighbor: "Would you live in that situation?" The unidentified neighbor replied "No, I wouldn't even have tried to clean it up, I would have just moved out, just would have left everything and started over."
I found that very interesting, too. Why on earth did the neighbor reply in that fashion? Why did the neighbor say that the neighbor "wouldn't have tried to clean it up"?
That sure sounds like the neighbor was implying that the mother WAS trying to clean it up. The mother didn't abandon the home. Sounds like the neighbor was amazed by the mother's tenacity in trying to clean it up.
I certainly got the impression that the mother was friendly with the neighbor or neighbors, and that they liked her, and that the mother would have trusted the neighbor with her children.
As said above, the children were removed from the home once before, "under similar circumstances". Probably for the mother's squalor, but possibly for the father's violence. The reporter wasn't specific in quoting the police report.
As said above (under "more info on entire family") ... a person claiming to be a relative of the father's CLAIMS that the children were removed once before until the mother "cleaned up her act". During that time, the children supposedly stayed with the mother's aunt and uncle. This info is hearsay and cannot be verified.
However, if you look at ALL of the info from all of the reports and rumors, it does sound like the mother had been trying to cope and trying to clean up, more than once.
The implication is that the mother DID previously desqualor. Apparently she just wasn't able to "MAINTAIN".
- Mother: Aged 23
- Father: Aged 23
- Children: Aged 3, 4 and 6
- Supposedly, the man is the father of all three children.
- This means that the first child was born when the parents were 17 years old.
- The father is wanted on domestic violence charges.
- As stated above, it SEEMS that the father was not currently living at the mother's residence. Unknown if he ever did.
- Three dogs (ages and sizes not mentioned) found at the mother's home. (see "more info on pets" above).
I don't know about you, but I personally think that the mother was in a terrible situation, and had tried to clean up. And she obviously lacked the coping and living skills needed for her situation. She might have been overwhelmed. And despite all that, she seems to have truly cared about her children.
Is it really true that the mother's relatives possibly might eventually get temporary custody of the children? As far as I can see, that's just a RUMOR posted by someone claiming to be a relative of the father.
All we know for certain is that the children went to the Home of the Innocents at first.
Is it really true that the mother had the children taken away once before? Supposedly it says that on the police report.
The REAL question is: will the mother be TAUGHT how to DESQUALOR and MAINTAIN ? ? ?
Or will they just call her a "bad mother" and tell her to "just clean it up", and not really train her how to do housekeeping?
Bottom lines:
The mother needs to be away from the violent father.
She most likely needs some form of caring counseling.
The mother needs to be taught SKILLS and learn PRACTICE with housekeeping.
The mother:- Mother has been charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.
- She was released from jail on her own recognizance -- on the day after the arrest.
- However, the news article implied that the police wanted the case prosecuted, and the case was going forward.
- If tried and convicted, she faces up to a year in jail and $500.00 fine.
- The police are considering filing animal cruelty charges against the her.
The father:- Father was already wanted for domestic violence charges.
- The father escaped the police chase. As of 5 days after the mother's arrest, the father had not yet been caught.
- The police said they would probably additional charges for "running from the police".
EDITING TO ADD .... I want to re-emphasize that 90% of the above news reporting was taken from the policeman's statement to the media. The perspective of a policeman who had never seen squalor and was shocked by what he saw.
The media did not interview the family or the social workers. All we have is the perspective of one policeman.
