A Michigan woman who allegedly abandoned her children in 2020 and forced them to live in squalor for years has been charged with three counts of first-degree child abuse, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The charges were announced five days after Oakland County sheriff’s deputies discovered the children — ages 12, 13 and 15 — living in what has been described by officials as “horrifying” living conditions. The children had been found living in “absolute squalor” in a Pontiac home: Feces were found throughout the house. Garbage was piled as high as 4 feet in some rooms. And two of the children slept on pizza boxes.
“Obviously, the trauma here is significant,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said during a news conference Wednesday. “We say a lot, ‘This is the worst I’ve ever seen,’ and I’ve stopped saying that … it was unbelievable what they were living with for years.”
McDonald described the children’s mother — identified as 34-year-old Kelli Bryant — as someone who put fear in her children and forced them to live in conditions not fit for any “living creature.” McDonald said Bryant concealed all this from her family and friends, and deprived her children of the one thing they needed most: love.
“What stands out most to me is no love. There was nobody there to care for them, nobody physically present to let them know that they were safe and they were loved,” said McDonald, who is also seeking to have Bryant’s parental rights terminated.
An attorney of record has not yet been listed in court documents for Bryant, who is currently jailed and faces up to life in prison if convicted. The Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, reached out to multiple relatives of Bryant but none have returned calls for comment.
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According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, the abuse and neglect occurred between Jan. 1, 2021, and Feb. 14, 2025. McDonald elaborated on the dates and events, noting the mother actually has four children and last lived at the Pontiac home with all of her kids in 2019.
But at some point between 2020 and 2021, McDonald said, the mother left the house. A fourth child went to live with his father, while the other three were left behind to fend for themselves.
A custody case involving that fourth child who was spared the others’ fates offers a glimpse into the life of the mother, who has portrayed herself in court documents as a struggling, single mom who got no help from her children’s fathers. In one 2022 filing, Bryant wrote to the court that times were so tough, she needed her youngest son to go live with his dad — which he ultimately did.
“Circumstances (have) changed for me,” Bryant wrote in the August 2022 filing. “I chose to find more affordable housing. I am unemployed again. My rent is $1224 a month and I’m responsible for all utilities. I also have 3 other children.”
According to the filing, in the summer of 2022, Bryant told the court that she doesn’t have a “for sure consistent place to live or a job,” and that she was in a situation where she could “barely provide for myself or my children.”
Then she mentioned the father of the three abandoned kids.
“My other children(‘s) father is working with me in regards to our children. This is only temporary. I just need time to find another affordable place and employment.”
Her plea continued: “Please allow me this time to get on my feet. I’ve practically raised my children alone with less than the bare minimum from their fathers.”
The mother’s 2022 court filing conflicts with the timeline offered by authorities, which shows that while she was pleading for help, her children had already been abandoned.
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According to McDonald, Bryant took the “active steps of lying” to make sure the kids were undiscovered, and ordered them to stay put.
“(She) instructed the kids they were not to answer the door or leave the house,” McDonald said, adding the children “expressed fear” about what their mother would do if they left the home.
“She concealed the children from family and friends, and lied about who was caring for the kids and their whereabouts,” said McDonald, who offered more new information about the case.
Each of the children had their own phones and the 15-year-old son would text his mother when food supplies ran low, according to McDonald. The three siblings also had no physical contact with their mother since she abandoned them years ago.
Food was not always being dropped off weekly, as was previously reported by law enforcement. And the kids had no hygiene products during the years they were alone as the mom didn’t provide toilet paper, soap or shampoo, McDonald said.
According to McDonald and the sheriff’s office, the two youngest siblings — both girls — never left the house in almost five years, and the 15-year-old brother only left a few times: to check the mail, and to touch the grass.
The sheriff’s office said the children were discovered on Friday after the landlord reached out and told deputies there had been no communication with the mother since December, and rent hadn’t been paid since October.
When the three children were finally rescued, McDonald said, their bodies and clothing were covered in feces. And at the hospital, she said, they struggled to brush their teeth and flush the toilet because they hadn’t done so in years.
The mother was arrested that same day and is currently in the Oakland County Jail.
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Sheriff: 3 children fell of Pontiac School District’s radar
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard previously said the children’s father was not involved in their lives as he had been in prison in prior years, though he did try to reconnect with the kids and get visitation rights following his prison release. But as of 2022, his wife wouldn’t let him, and by then the children were already living alone in a condo in the otherwise quaint community northwest of Detroit.
The children have been placed with a family member following intervention from Child Protective Services. According to Bouchard, the children had no schooling since they were abandoned between the spring and summer of 2020 — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a news conference Tuesday, Bouchard sought to explain how the children fell off the schools’ radar, noting that the Pontiac School District did receive a request for the students’ transcripts from another school.
But the district never got confirmation that the children ever enrolled in another school, Bouchard said. And after the children didn’t show up for school, the Pontiac district dropped them from enrollment without anyone knowing where the children ended up.
The Pontiac School District was not available for comment Tuesday. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer whether any complaints were ever filed to CPS about the children, citing privacy concerns and agency policy not to comment on juvenile matters.
McDonald urges anyone who suspects or has information about child abuse, to call the CPS hotline at 855-444-3391.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan mom charged with child abuse for 3 kids who lived in squalor
