Children removed from filthy house

REDMOND, Wash. – Three young children were in state custody after being removed from their filthy home where police found stained sheets and carpets, beer bottles and spoiled food.

Redmond officers were called at 8:40 a.m. Friday to a house in the Avondale Park transitional housing development, where the children’s father said his 15-year-old son was refusing to go to school.

Police found the boy had handcuffed himself to his bed, but they also found open bottles of beer around the house, piles of dirty clothes, spoiled food in the refrigerator and throughout the house, and bloodstains on the sheets.

The family said the stains were from bloody noses that had not been cleaned.

“They were just deplorable conditions,” Redmond police Officer Stacey Holland said. “The smell of urine hit you even before you got to the door.”

The boy and two girls, aged 3 and 5, hadn’t been bathed in some time but otherwise seemed healthy.

“The children, despite their conditions, were in very good spirits,” Holland said. “They looked well.”

The children were placed with Child Protective Services.

The parents were not arrested, and have not been identified.