Here in the Chicago area, an extremely disturbing story has been unfolding. On September 8, a 14 year old autistic boy was found lying unresponsive in his yard, in the suburb of Berwyn, and later pronounced dead. His home was discovered to be filled with over 200 animals…and filthy beyond adequate description. His mother, Lydia Price, has today been charged with two felony counts of criminal abuse and neglect of a disabled person, as well as three misdemeanor counts of child endangerment.
Matthew Degner’s autopsy determined he had suffered from bronchopneumonia, ruling it a natural cause of death. However, once the horrific conditions of his living environment were discovered, questions of whether the state of his home could have caused his illness and subsequent death surfaced.
In addition, he lived with not only his mother and grandmother, but also four other siblings – all of whom have shown at least flu-like symptoms. Three teens were taken into the custody and care of the Department of Children and Family Services, and are receiving medical care; an 18 year old sibling has also received medical care.
When authorities entered the home, they found over 200 animals amid horrendous squalor. Surrounded by inches-thick mold and feces, the hungry, sick, dehydrated, feces-covered, neglected animals were crammed into cages – 15 cats were crowded into one small cage – some along with deceased animals. In a home of approximately 1,100 square feet, investigators found dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, squirrels and raccoons, kikajous, a fruit-bat and more, plus a shocking infestation of large cockroaches. The cats are said to be in serious condition.
Neighbors have reported that the children never went to school, the family was isolated, and perhaps most frightening of all – that they witnessed someone from the house laying Matthew out on the lawn, presumably to deter anyone from entering the home. The children themselves have been found to be malnourished. The mother insists the children all recently came down with a flu and that they had been improving since.
Given the details of the condition of the home, the amount of animals kept, and the isolation of the family from the outside world, it sure seems to be a classic case of animal hoarding, to the extreme. However, given those conditions, in addition to the lack of medical care sought for the children, there is understandably a question as to whether the home itself caused the illness that Matthew died of. Hence, the criminal charges.
It will be interesting to see how this case progresses through the court system. While the endangerment to children and animals alike can never be taken lightly, there remains the belief that hoarding stems from a psychological disorder – with no criminal, let alone endangering, intents.
“The horrible thing is that it’s another case of hoarding,” said Terri Sparks, public relations director for the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge. “They think they’re helping, but it’s really just detrimental to them and to the animals.”
Should this mother be charged of the crimes and sent to prison? Or should she be charged of the lesser crimes, and directed into appropriate mental health treatment?
That’s so sad… for the child, the other kids, the animals, and even the mother if she was truly mentally ill. My heart breaks for those kids – with the isolation and the hoarding and the illnesses (who knows how long that’s been going on.)
Olá amiguinho…
Agradeço por voce ter ido ao meu blog me dar os parabéns pelo meu aniversário. Fiquei muito feliz. E sempre estou por aqui também no seu blog. É bom ter amigos, não é mesmo? Meus Avós fizeram uma festa surpresa pra mim e mamãe colocou fotos da festa em meu blog. Venha dividir este momento alegre comigo. Voce é sempre bem vindo.
AMO MEUS AMIGOS!!!!
Te espero com amor.
Aus 1000
KIPPY
House of Carnivores, I so agree with you. It’s truly heartbreaking, and such unnecessary suffering!
Hi Kim,
Tragic and heartbreaking. I am wondering why the neighbours didn’t raise the alarm in regards to the awful situation, sooner to appropriate authorities. Another case of apathetic indifference, I hazard to guess, or perhaps the authorities didn’t pay heed to the neighbours.
It’s a tough call in regards to what is appropriate in regards to the mother. This does appear to be a case of severe mental health issues and the tragedy is that action wasn’t taken sooner in preventing the very sad loss of life of that autistic child.
You bring up a good point about the neighbors, Gary. Well said about the tragedy of it all!
That’s a tough question, and one that will polarize the case, one would think, with prosecution saying “criminal” and the defense pushing for mental health.
If what the neighbors said about laying the boy out on the lawn is true, that suggests a certain level of awareness of the situation. Rather than call for help themselves, they put the boy on the lawn where somebody else would deal with him and thus, hopefully, nobody official would enter the house? I don’t know if that was the motivation, or even the situation.
Regardless, it is a gutwrenching thing. My heart just sank when I read the title, and then as the story progressed. That poor boy. That poor family.
Absolutely heartbreaking. While I steer towards mental illness, I also wonder why neighbors hadn’t made calls for help or to alert someone to the conditions. Where was Animal Care and Control? Where was the child advocacy? Turning a blind eye to this type of neglect will only end badly as we have now clearly seen. Animals could have been saved and more importantly, a child could have been saved.
Jen, you point out what become a crucial factor in this case, that the family intentionally laid the boy in the yard. He was not responsive, but was declared dead hours later…leading one to think he had not passed on yet when he lay in the yard. There will undoubtedly be much questioning of just how cognizant the mother was of her situation.
Doreen, you are so right – it seems society as a whole, as well as its parts, failed this family. I can’t imagine how this went on for so long, with the children not going to school. A neighbor said they would say they were home-schooled; isn’t there some agency that checks on these things? Truly heartbreaking.
Sometimes the neighbors do call and sadly nothing happens. I don’t know if anyone did try to intervene here, but I never make assumptions based on personal experience. I have known some cases I was sure would trigger a Dept of Social Services response that got a clean bill of health and they walked away. Other families seem to have DSS as a permanent family member.
What I do wonder is where is the boy’s father and the rest of the family? As I said neighbors can call, but if DSS chooses not to act there is little they can do. However, parents and family usually have more authority to get help.
Hi, Bailey! According to the reports, the father has been in prison, and this family isolated themselves from everyone. Not hard to consider they probably kept away from other relatives as well. You’re so right, the agencies charged with the authority to have stopped this before it became so extreme seem to have failed or were not aware.
This is tragic. I really tend to think that mental health treatment, regardless of charges and prison, should be implemented.
That really is sad that these things cannot be caught before they get so out of hand. It is a horrible situation for everyone.
Empty Nester, I think you’re most definitely right. There doesn’t seem to be any possible explanation for someone having that many animals in a house, let alone a small one, without the presence of a disorder. Hopefully, she will receive proper treatment for it!
Oh, Brian, doesn’t it just make you so sad? The people, the animals…no one comes out of this okay.
OMG, what a horrible story…. But, I agree with the other comment. How could a neighbor not have noticed or done something?
Amiguinho…
Bom domingo com alegria pra voce e tudo vai ficar bem, viu?
Uma ótima semana pra voce e sua família. Fiquem com o Papai do Céu.
Amo sua amizade.
Aus 1000 com amor e carinho e que sejam felizes…
KIPPY
What an unfortunate story. It seems that mental illness must have played some part in this. I think deciding which charges should be brought depends on whether the mental health treatment could be mandatory for as long as necessary. It also seems to me that the other children should not be returned to her care. The damage that has been done to them could take the rest of their lives to overcome.
If time is money you’ve made me a weetahilr woman.