Three infant bodies found in home; woman arrested

BLACKSTONE, Mass. – The bodies of three infants were found Thursday in a filthy house where four other children were removed by authorities last month, a Massachusetts prosecutor said.

A woman who lives at the home was arrested on charges related to the living conditions at the house, according to police. Prosecutors said Erika Murray, 31, was scheduled to be arraigned today on charges including intimidation of a witness.

Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said authorities don’t know when or how the babies died, or their ages and genders. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the deaths.

Detectives investigating a case of reckless endangerment of children found the bodies at the house in Blackstone, about 50 miles southwest of Boston on the Rhode Island line. Investigators working in the house have been wearing hazmat suits and are decontaminated when they leave, the prosecutor said.

“The house is filled with vermin,” Early said. “We have flies. We have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas, as much as a foot-and-a-half to 2 feet high. The house is in a deplorable condition.”

Early said four other children, ages 13, 10, 3 and 6 months old, were removed from the house Aug. 28 after a neighbor who discovered their living conditions notified police. The prosecutor said one of the children in the house approached the neighbor about a child who wouldn’t stop crying. Early said the 6-month-old was found covered with feces lying on a bed.

The woman who was arrested was expected to remain in police custody overnight, police spokesman John Guilfoil said. It was not immediately known whether Murray has an attorney.

Marilynn Soucy, 68, who lives a few doors down from the house, said in a telephone interview she’s still in shock at the news in the neighborhood where she has lived for 35 years.

“I am so disgusted. It hasn’t really registered in my head yet,” she said. “My husband and I raised seven children. We have 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I cannot imagine hurting a child.”