Parents Arrested And 7 Children Rescued. Police Found Animal Feces, Trash At Home
Parents in South Carolina have been arrested after police rescued their seven children from living in squalor in their Berkeley County home on Oct. 23, Wednesday.
Erik Perez-Viera and Diana Salbon, the parents, are now facing five counts of unlawful conduct towards children. They are booked into the Berkeley County detention center and will likely face 10 years for each count.
Police raided the house after an inspector with a property management company alerted them.
Two of those rescued, aged 3 and 5, were found locked inside a room littered with animal waste, trash and small animals in cages. The children were hungry and dead-bolted from the outside, Berkeley County Sheriff's Office said.
Four other children, who also inhabited the home, were at the school while another was at a doctor’s appointment. Three adults were living in the residence, the sheriff’s office said.
According to Duane Lewis, Berkeley County Sheriff, "The conditions were just deplorable for children to be living in, It's sad to see people allow this to happen to their own children."
The third person was said by the police to have been a tenant. The authorities took her two children in protective custody too considering the potential charges.
The children have been placed with South Carolina Department of Social Services.
The neighbors said they called out the couple on several occasions for leaving trash on the pavements. "Multiple cars in and out, always parked on the streets," Meagan Quals, a neighbor, told ABC affiliate WCIV. "They have multiple fines for having stuff on the street, on the curb."
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