Smell “Was So Bad”: Neighbor Describes Squalid Home in Blackstone Where 3 Infants Were Found Dead

Marie White says her neighbors lived in filth for years

A neighbor of a woman who is accused of concealing the death of three infants in her vermin-infested home in Blackstone, Massachusetts, said she had seen children outside the house always underdressed for the weather and piles of trash in the backyard.

"I don't know how many times I've seen those children outside no shoes, no clothes on, eating out of a cracker box and drinking soda. This was 6:30, 7 o'clock in the morning," Marie White told NECN in an exclusive interview. White and her husband moved to Florida two years ago after living in their Blackstone home for a decade. The couple still rents out their house, located next-door to 23 St. Paul Street.

Erika Murray, 31, was arrested Thursday night after detectives investigating a case of reckless endangerment of children found the bodies of three infants at the home infested with vermin and littered with soiled diapers. Four other children, ages 13, 10, 3 and 6 months old, were removed from the house on Aug. 28 after a neighbor notified police about their living conditions.

Murray was arrested on charges including fetal death concealment, witness intimidation and permitting substantial injury to a child. Not guilty pleas were entered Friday on her behalf and she is being held without bail.

Her attorney, Keith Halpern, suggested that Murray struggled with mental illness, The Associated Press reported.

White says she never saw the infants, but she did see piles of dirty diapers among other trash out in the backyard.

She said she called the Board of Health in Blackstone to see if the trash could be removed.

“Maybe a week or two went by when I saw a dumpster in that yard and they were loading it," White said.

But soon after, White said the trash in the backyard piled up again.

One day, she said she observed something odd through a tattered piece of cloth hanging over the home's basement window.

"I saw that man, which I thought was her husband, didn't know it was the boyfriend, but he lived there with her all the years I've been there, rocking on a rocking chair, banging his head on the wall," White recalled.

White said that for the most part, she minded her own business, but after becoming upset with the smell of dog feces from her neighbor's backyard, she called the animal control officer. The odor became so bad that she had to keep her windows closed.

"The smell behind there was so bad, that it almost knocked me off my feet," White said.

She said she assumed it was a dead “dog or a human.”

Blackstone Police said skeletal remains of several animals, including cats and a dog, were also found inside the home. During the investigation, police and crews have been wearing hazardous material suits while they sift through the small home.

White says she regrets never putting her complaint to the Department of Health in writing.

"I went to the town hall, asked for the health department," she said. "I told them the situation and they said 'write it up.' Unfortunately, I never wrote it up and that's one thing I regret."

NECN was unable to reach both the animal control officer and Department of Health for comment on Friday.

White said she is haunted by the fact that investigators have not disclosed information about the woman's alleged boyfriend's whereabouts or involvement.

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