Six children, aged 9 to 1, were found alone and living in squalor.
A pair of Texas moms have been arrested after their six collective children were found living in squalor — one of whom was so hungry he had resorted to eating his own excrement, police said.
Roommates Riccy Padilla-Hernandez, 28, and 34-year-old Yures Molina — each a mother to three of the children — were both charged with endangering a child, KPRC reported.
On February 2, Houston Police Department were alerted by a maintenance worker at an apartment complex in Green Landing, after he spotted an unaccompanied two-year-old girl wandering barefoot around the pool area.
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View StoryWhen officers arrived, they summoned the fire department to examine the child; while there, her 7-year-old brother appeared and led officers to their home, where they found four more children alone, living in "deplorable conditions."
According to court documents the children, who ranged in age from 9 to 1, were "covered in filth" and "infested with lice."
Houston Police Department spokesperson Shay Awosiyan said officers found soiled diapers with flies buzzing around, and an empty unwashed baby bottle that had been sitting there for days.
The children had no access to food. Confined to a crib in a soiled diaper, the one-year-old — who has special needs — was so hungry he was "eating his own feces", the documents said.
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View StoryPer the court documents, Padilla-Hernandez's children are a 9-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl and the 1-year-old baby boy; Molina is mother to a two-year-old girl, and two boys aged 7 and 3.
It is not clear what the relationship between the two women is, beyond living together.
Neither of the women were home when officers arrived to the scene; Padilla-Hernandez arrived while police were still there, claiming she had been out "doing her taxes." Molina, who is reportedly seven months pregnant, was then summoned to the residence.
Both women were arrested and charged with endangering a child; they have since bonded out of jail on $15,000, and are due back in court in April.
Child Protective Services took custody of all six children.