MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) — A husband and wife from Middletown are facing child endangerment charges, according to police.
Police said the couple’s children were living in deplorable conditions at their home on East Main Street in Middletown. The pair were just arrested but the investigation dates back to November.
47-year-old William Clayton and his wife Katie O’Brien–Clayton has each been arrested on three counts of risk of injury to a minor. After a six-month investigation, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) took their three children from their home.
Police first responded there in November on a report of a domestic disturbance. Authorities said the children aged 10,12 and 15 were living in squalor. Officials said the house smelled like feces and urine from the dozen cats and kittens loose inside.
The court document said the house was equipped with a single bathroom and shower on the first floor. Documents said the floor had collapsed and the shower and toilet had partially fallen in. Authorities said the shower was filthy, stained and had sunken into the floor.
Clayton said the bathroom had been under renovation for some time that’s why sheet rock was missing from the walls. He said the boiler hadn’t worked in 15 years and they were using a wood-burning stove in the middle of the living room to heat the home.
According to court documents, the home was so cluttered with rotten food and garbage, there was no place for the children to sit except on their beds.
After the investigators walked through the home, officials said its unsanitary state was so terrible she believed the children could not live inside.
The Department of Health was also notified and condemned the home.