Eight-Month-Old Baby Left Alone In Filthy House With Poop-Filled Toilet; Mother Arrested

A Pennsylvania mother has ended up behind bars after police found her 8-month-old daughter alone inside their squalid and extremely unhygienic house.

Danielle Dominque Johnson of Williamsport was arrested and charged with child endangerment last Thursday, reports Penn Live.

The arrest affidavit said the house was filled with rotten food, dirty diapers and soiled clothes that the officer, who arrived there, had to "physically restrain himself from throwing up."

Williamsport Police were alerted by a caller last Wednesday about a child possibly left alone at the house. The affidavit said the caller informed the officers that they heard Johnson arguing with her 8-year-old nephew to get into her car. The boy reportedly said: "The baby is still inside." To this, Johnson said she knew that, and the child will be fine.

According to officer Gino Caschera, he arrived at the home in the 600 block of Maple Street around 10:30 pm. On entering, Caschera and fellow officer Nikia Bonnell heard a child crying. They found the front door and screen door open and the lights on. On entering the house, they were "assaulted" by the odor of the trash. The living room was overflowing with trash. There was old food on the coffee table, and a dead fish floated in an aquarium. The kitchen table and floor were covered with trash. A stained mattress was propped against the wall in a room behind the kitchen.

The bathroom was so dirty that it was infested with flies. The toilet was full of urine and feces. The bedroom next to the bathroom was so cluttered that it was impossible to walk through. A metal fork, prescription pills and soft drinks cans lay near the bed.

Officers found the child on an adult bed with no safety railings. "I believe that if the eight-month-old female had fallen off of this bed, she would have been severely injured, or even killed," Caschera wrote in the affidavit.

The child had a large hernia protruding out of her shirt. Child and Youth Services and EMS were summoned to the house. Soon after, Johnson pulled up with her nephew.

After Johnson was placed on arrest and removed from the spot, officers saw two other girls, aged 8 and 11, walk up to the residence barefoot. They told the officers they had been walking about the neighborhood for hours and had not eaten all day. The children identified themselves as Johnson's daughters.

The infant and both juveniles were taken into custody by authorities.