A “foul odor” coming from a Texas home led police to rescue two children living in squalid and unsafe conditions, surrounded by rodent feces, rotting food covered in flies and maggots in the kitchen sink.
According to the Temple Police Department, officers responded to a residence just before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20, after a neighbor reported the odor coming from the residence.
When officers approached, they “could immediately smell an odor coming from the home” that one of the officers said “smelled like death,” per an arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
Officers also noted flies around the windows.
When officers knocked on the door and windows and no one answered, they entered the home, believing someone was possibly dead inside. One inside, police said they encountered two men: Michael Robbins, 34, and John Robbins, 68.
The residence was “completely filled with rotting garbage on the floor and surfaces,” and two children, 8 and 10, were discovered sitting in a bathtub half-filled with dirty water, according to the affidavit.
An officer noted that one of the children had matted hair that “appeared to be infested with bugs,” the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, the children were asked to get dressed, and both came back wearing dirty clothes covered in food stains.
The children “smelled of urine, feces, body odor and stagnant water” and told officers they had never attended school and didn’t know how to read or write.
Neighbors told the officers that they hadn’t seen the children outside in several years, per the affidavit.
“It was learned that Michael Robbins and John Robbins did not provide food regularly for either child,” and the children had not eaten the previous evening.
Per the affidavit, the children were immediately removed from the home and transported to a children’s hospital.
Police continued searching the home and found rat and mouse feces throughout, rotting food on the kitchen counter covered with flies and other bugs, and maggots in standing water in the kitchen sink.
Michael and John Robbins were both arrested on charges of abandoning or endangering a child with intent. It’s unclear if they have entered pleas.
John Robbins’ attorney could not be reached for comment.
It is unclear if Michael Robbins has retained an attorney.
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