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Parents leave 19 kids home alone with no food in sweltering heat

Posted by on Jul. 4, 2012 at 12:09 PM
  • 18 Replies

 

Police: Parents leave 19 kids home alone with no food in sweltering heat

By Louis Casiano, msnbc.com

Responding to a welfare complaint from a neighbor Monday, authorities were shocked when they entered a Kentucky home to find 19 children living in squalor with no parental supervision.

Deputies said the children, who ranged in age from 8 months to 14 years, were living in the Bowling Green home with no food or working air conditioner, according to a news release by the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

Warren County Sheriff's Detective Tim Robinson told The Associated Press that the three-bedroom house had dog feces inside. Temperatures had reached 101 degrees in the area on Monday.


He said the children had been left alone for a week.

Jackie Farah, who is the biological mother of some of the children, was arrested and charged with 14 counts of criminal abuse and five counts of wanton endangerment after traveling back from Chicago. She is being held without bond.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Robinson told the AP that parents, Irving "Joe" Smith and Farah, left for Michigan on June 27 to tend to a family emergency and asked neighbors to check on the kids while they were gone.

"It looks like a blended family," Robinson told the AP, with some of the children related to Smith and others to Farah.

He said the neighbor probably didn't realize how many kids were in the house. The AP reported that the children resorted at times to begging neighbors for food.

Smith is still being sought after, according to the press release.

According to Robinson, when police arrived, the children behaved as if being left alone was a common occurrence.

It was "not really a surprise to just be hanging out there by themselves," Robinson told the AP. "While certain children would be frantic - 'I need my mom' - this wasn't happening" with these kids.

Nine dogs and one cat were also found at the residence and removed by animal control.

Watch US News crime videos on msnbc.com

The children were taken to a hospital and treated before being placed in the state protective custody.


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Posted by on Jul. 4, 2012 at 12:09 PM
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mhmomma
by Becky on Jul. 4, 2012 at 12:25 PM
That's just sad. Some people are just not fit to be parents
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betsystipo
by Betsy on Jul. 4, 2012 at 12:54 PM
Even if their excuse was the 14 yr old could watch over its siblings. That's just too many kids for one person to be watching and factor in no food. I hope they don't get them back too quickly if at all
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CoeyG
by Colleen on Jul. 4, 2012 at 2:36 PM

Okay I get that the parents should be drawn and quartered however what was wrong with the older kids going to the neighbors and letting them know that they were out of food?  That there were that many kids there without adult supervision?  Do the older kids not have even half a brain between them?  

Shellness
by Member on Jul. 4, 2012 at 2:48 PM

 really sad is all I can say

snuggiewoogie
by Jackie on Jul. 4, 2012 at 8:40 PM

 OMG!

VintageWife
by on Jul. 4, 2012 at 8:47 PM
o_O
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CoeyG
by Colleen on Jul. 4, 2012 at 9:23 PM

See it's paretns like these who need to be put into the stocks and publicly flogged.  Obviously common sense didn't run in their genes!  And since none of the kids used their brains it's obviousl it is a genetic disease.  

Charizma77
by Carissa on Jul. 4, 2012 at 9:25 PM
Horribly sad
mamamiajk
by Silver Member on Jul. 5, 2012 at 7:59 AM

Sad. The only good thing I can say is Thank God they were all okay.

TheJerseyGirl
by on Jul. 5, 2012 at 8:06 AM

 Was it the Duggars?!?!? lol

Sorry...couldnt resist!

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