A Michigan mother is accused of abandoning her two small children with special needs inside her home where they were left to endure “filth, hunger, and fear” for days, according to police.
After a neighbor called 911 asking for a welfare check, Flint Township police arrived at the home of Krystal Farmer on Wednesday, February 18, and found the children alone in the residence with trash littering the floors, feces covering the walls, and a faucet running, the Flint Township Police Department wrote in an online Facebook post.
In the post shared on Saturday, February 21, the department published body camera footage capturing what police described as a neglectful and “heartbreaking” scene.
“There were no clean clothes folded on the bed,” the department wrote. “No food in the kitchen ready for small stomachs. No phone, no tablet, no way for those children to reach the outside world.”
Officers found one of the children trying to eat raw meat that had been spoiled because they were hungry, according to police. The other child was said to be found “curled up” on the floor of a bedroom.
“For children with special needs, routine is security. … In that house, hours stretched into days. Hunger and thirst set in, and confusion turned into fear,” police wrote on Facebook.
After learning that the children had been by themselves for days, prosecutors charged Farmer with seven felony counts, according to police.
Farmer, 27, is charged with two counts of child abandonment, two counts of second-degree child abuse, two founds of second-degree child abuse in the presence of another child, and one count of lying to a peace officer during a violent crime investigation, court records viewed by Luxury Handbag Shopping on Tuesday, February 24, show.
She was taken into custody and had her bond set at $64,000 on February 21, according to court records.
Farmer is represented by a court-appointed public defender, whose name was not immediately listed in court records.
It was not currently clear whether she had entered a plea.
Flint Township police said that Farmer should have been the children’s “fiercest protector,” but she instead “walked away” from caring for them.
It is unclear where she had gone when she allegedly left the children alone.
“For children who rely so heavily on stability, that kind of abandonment is not just neglect, it is a rupture of trust at the deepest level,” the police department said in its social media post. “Instead of being shielded from harm, they were left alone to endure it.”
Now, both children are “safe,” police said.
“If you ever question whether making that call matters, remember this: because one neighbor acted, two children were rescued from conditions no human being should endure,” the department wrote on Facebook. “See something. Say something. That single call made all the difference.”
Farmer is due in court on March 5 for a probable cause hearing, court records show.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
