A mother killed three of her babies and let one of the infants decompose until it was just a diaper-wearing skeleton, police say.
The first day of Erika Murray’s trial for the death of her three infants on Tuesday revealed appalling details about the conditions of her ‘House of Horrors’ in Blackstone, Massachusetts.
Murray, 35, was arrested after the feces-covered, insect-filled, trash-strewn home was discovered by a neighbor, Betsy Brown, in August 2014.
Investigators would eventually find a dead infant stuffed in a backpack in a closet with the placenta still attached near a dead dog in separate bag. A second dead infant was found in another closet, NBC reported.
A third dead baby was found ‘diapered and fully clothed, but they were skeletal remains,’ prosecutors said.
Murray, who had four living children in the house ranging from five months to 13-years-old, is charged with murdering two of the infants and letting one die by extreme neglect.
Prosecutors said that some of two of her children had never been taken outside and her 3-year-old was ‘not capable of walking, could not feed herself and was developmentally delayed to a huge extent.’
Brown was the first to testify in the trial and broke into tears as she described the deplorable conditions of the home that she discovered. She entered the house after Murray’s 10-year-old came to her and asked her to help him shush a crying baby.
She said: ‘Dirty diapers, lots of dirty diapers, baby bottles, maggots everywhere. It was really dark and hot. It was horrible.’
‘You really couldn’t see a floor. It was more like just walking on top of stuff trying to get to other stuff … horrible rotting food, dirty diapers. It was horrible. It was the worst smell I’ve ever smelled.’
Brown went upstairs and discovered an infant, and told the court: ‘She had feces completely, pretty much covering her, hair, body, everything.’
Blackstone Acting Police Chief Gregory Gilmore also testified and recalled the absolute squalor of the home.
Gilmore said: ‘The investigators began to notice bugs or flying insects, fleas began to collect on our clothing. There was some further concern about our health.’
Chairman of Blackstone’s board of Health said the conditions were so bad that the company that cleans bloody crime scenes said the home had to be torn down.
‘I noticed a lot of feces on the bed… there was a lot of feces on the walls. The odors were sickening. (The smell) was just indescribable.’
Murray is not being tried by a jury, she has instead opted for a bench trial, which will be ruled on by a judge.
The case continues.
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