Mother Charged for Death of Child Who Lived in Squalor

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Sep 12, 2011 9:40PM

After a 14-year-old boy was found lying unresponsive on his lawn in Berwyn, police discovered the home held four more children in unlivable conditions with no working toilet or refrigerator. The mother Lydia Price was arrested on abuse charges and released after making bail.

The children were also surrounded by cats, dogs, birds, rats, hissing cockroaches and a raccoon. The menagerie included more than 200 animals that had also been neglected. Officials say all 109 cats had to be euthanized, along with many of the others.

The boy died of pneumonia. The other children aged 12-18 all had to be treated for flu-like symptoms. The children had never attended school and lived in isolation in a home now declared unfit for habitation. Police described them as "shoeless and dirty." The 14-year-old who died was severely mentally disabled. The 12-year-old has severe autism.

Police have charged the mother with has been charged with criminal abuse and neglect, child endangerment, animal hoarding, cruelty to animals and abuse and neglect of a disabled child resulting in death.