A couple from Oklahoma was arrested this month after their two young children were discovered covered in feces in a home so unsanitary that authorities had to wear hazmat suits to enter, according to police.
On September 12, three children under the age of five were rescued from the filthy environment, leading to the arrests of 24-year-old Dakota Dodd and 22-year-old Aubrianna Freeman on charges of child neglect.
Oklahoma City police responded to a call from a concerned neighbor who reported the situation. Dodd guided officers to a bedroom where they found the 3- and 4-year-old children covered in dried feces.
“There was faeces on the walls, faeces on the children. It was an absolutely disgusting scene,” said Oklahoma City Police Master Sgt. Gary Knight to KOCO. Officers described being overwhelmed by the stench of feces and urine upon entering the residence.
According to a police report obtained by Law and Crime, the young victims had feces accumulated on their fingernails, palms, feet, legs, and faces. The report detailed horrific conditions throughout the home, including piles of what appeared to be human feces on the second floor and a bedroom floor littered with smeared and flattened feces.
Investigators later donned hazmat suits due to the appalling conditions they encountered. Dodd, reportedly the children’s stepfather, allegedly told police he locked the children in the dirty room for over 12 hours a day to allow Freeman to sleep and to “keep the children safe because of the neighborhood,” according to News 9.
An 11-month-old girl, Dodd’s biological daughter, was also removed from the home.
The neighbor who reported the neglect, Barbara North, recounted seeing the naked children at the window. “They looked at me like, ‘Help me,’” she said. “They had shit all over their faces, hands and mouths.”
Dodd and Freeman now face five counts of child neglect, as reported by Law and Crime.
