Teh One Who Knocks
11-26-2013, 12:24 PM
610 AM WTVN
http://i.imgur.com/fYa2wJ2l.jpg
THE PLAINS, Ohio (WTVN) -- An elderly couple is recovering after a sheriff's deputy found them living in horrific conditions that included trash, rotting food, and feces.
Athens County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Burba responded to a welfare check to a garage on West Second Street in The Plains where a man and his sister were living. When he arrived he found an elderly man on the floor holding the door open.
The inside of the garage was filled with filth that was waist high in some spots.
"I would say it's the most disgusting residence that I've seen in my 30 years of law enforcement," said Athens Co Sheriff Pat Kelly.
Inside the deputy found that the 73 year old man was naked, his face was filthy, his eyes were weeping, and he had dirt in his beard.
WARNING: graphic photos (http://www.610wtvn.com/photos/news/athens-county-squalor-374843/#/0/21912549)
The deputy found the man's 88 year old sister sitting in a chair with a burn to her leg from a kerosene heater. Burba wrote in his report that the woman's leg appeared to be rotting and weeping fluid. She had the same clothes on that she was wearing when she was burned. The woman told the deputy she was fine and didn't want to leave.
"They had to cut her away from the chair because her skin had melted into the chair," Kelly said.
The garage had no running water or bathroom inside. Kelly says the brother and sister lived together in a house next to the garage until it burned down two years ago. Another family member lives nearby. Kelly described her living conditions as similar, but said the woman refused to talk with deputies. Other family members had offered to help the couple, but they refused.
"Family members reached out, the only problem that I have is that reach was very short," he said.
Kelly doesn't anticipate anyone will be charged.
The man was taken to a local hospital where he is in intensive care. The woman taken to OSU Wexner Hospital where she's listed in serious condition. Kelly says paramedics don't see any way that doctors will be able to save the woman's leg.
Once they are released from the hospital, the man and woman will be put into adult protective services.
http://i.imgur.com/fYa2wJ2l.jpg
THE PLAINS, Ohio (WTVN) -- An elderly couple is recovering after a sheriff's deputy found them living in horrific conditions that included trash, rotting food, and feces.
Athens County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Burba responded to a welfare check to a garage on West Second Street in The Plains where a man and his sister were living. When he arrived he found an elderly man on the floor holding the door open.
The inside of the garage was filled with filth that was waist high in some spots.
"I would say it's the most disgusting residence that I've seen in my 30 years of law enforcement," said Athens Co Sheriff Pat Kelly.
Inside the deputy found that the 73 year old man was naked, his face was filthy, his eyes were weeping, and he had dirt in his beard.
WARNING: graphic photos (http://www.610wtvn.com/photos/news/athens-county-squalor-374843/#/0/21912549)
The deputy found the man's 88 year old sister sitting in a chair with a burn to her leg from a kerosene heater. Burba wrote in his report that the woman's leg appeared to be rotting and weeping fluid. She had the same clothes on that she was wearing when she was burned. The woman told the deputy she was fine and didn't want to leave.
"They had to cut her away from the chair because her skin had melted into the chair," Kelly said.
The garage had no running water or bathroom inside. Kelly says the brother and sister lived together in a house next to the garage until it burned down two years ago. Another family member lives nearby. Kelly described her living conditions as similar, but said the woman refused to talk with deputies. Other family members had offered to help the couple, but they refused.
"Family members reached out, the only problem that I have is that reach was very short," he said.
Kelly doesn't anticipate anyone will be charged.
The man was taken to a local hospital where he is in intensive care. The woman taken to OSU Wexner Hospital where she's listed in serious condition. Kelly says paramedics don't see any way that doctors will be able to save the woman's leg.
Once they are released from the hospital, the man and woman will be put into adult protective services.