Oakland County Sheriff raising funds as abandoned kids heal following rescue
Kids shared loaf of bread for food while living in Pontiac
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is asking for monetary donations to help the three kids now recovering after spending years living in a Pontiac home that their mom abandoned them in.
PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - Police with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office are continuing to investigate the case of three kids being abandoned in a Pontiac residence for years, receiving only bread to eat while being scared to go outside.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard called the details "soul crushing" before adding all three kids were improving. They are also soliciting money in hopes of raising funds to pay for any medical and educational costs the kids may have.
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Questions still remain after the heartbreaking discovery over the weekend of three kids left to fend for themselves inside a Pontiac residence after their mom allegedly abandoned them years earlier.
Bouchard gave new details about the kids' livelihoods around the time they were rescued, adding they were given a single loaf of bread that all three of them were supposed to share. It was supposed to last them three to four days, the sheriff said.
"Soul crushing on so many levels," said Bouchard.
The kids almost never left the apartment, apparently fearful of going outside. The 15-year-old boy, who was the only point of contact between the siblings and their mom, went outside twice. Once to get the mail and the other to feel the grass beyond their residence.
"To allow this to happen I don't think anyone - whether you have kids or not - will ever wrap your head around," said Bouchard. "Maybe we can get some insight (into) what she was thinking, but it will never satisfy any of us."
Both the teenage boy and his two sisters, 12 and 13 years old, are now staying at a social services organization nearby. The sheriff reported they were all improving with one of the girls talking quite a bit.
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Police are also piecing together how the kids fell through the cracks. Their dad was in jail at the time their mom left them. After getting out, he tried to reconnect with the kids, even getting a consent agreement with the courts in 2022.
"But the mother still would not allow him to see the kids," said Bouchard.
The sheriff also suspects gaps in the school system that were exasperated by the pandemic in 2020 led to the kids falling off district's radars.
"No one knew they were no where," he said.
Meanwhile, food deliveries were made by companies like Instacart and DoorDash, one of the only points of contact that those inside the residence could have had with the outside world.
Instead, it required the landlord to ask police for a welfare check after rental payments stopped coming in for the kids to eventually be discovered.
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What you can do:
The sheriff also had words for the community, offering thanks for the surge of generosity and support that led to mountains of donations and clothing.
While they have more than enough, police hope to raise funds to set up a trust to pay for future expenses the kids may have.
"I honestly think we have one of the most generous communities in the world and I’ve seen it time and time again," said Bouchard.
The PayPal link to send money to police can be found here.
The Source: Previous reporting and information from the Oakland County Sheriff's press conference was used for this story.