S.L. County condemns filth-filled home

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 5, 2007 by Pat Reavy Deseret Morning News

A Salt Lake County house where three children, two adults and a variety of pets were living in deplorable conditions was condemned Monday by the Salt Lake County Health Department.

Sheriff's deputies were called to the house near 3100 South and 800 East on a report of possible child abuse. What they found was an extremely filthy and unhealthy house.

Every room in the small house was covered thick with clothes, food, garbage and other debris. Some rooms had fecal material on the floors. The only running water in the house came from a sink that was clogged. The bathroom, including the bathtub, had heavy dirt and clothes were piled a foot high in the sink.

Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Tracey Wells said there was food that had been left in the refrigerator for two years, even though the fridge had not been working during that entire time. The smell that came from the refrigerator was nearly unbearable for deputies who opened it. There was another, much smaller cooler, however, that the family used as a fridge.

Ironically, the man who rented the home was wearing a work shirt of a refrigerator repair business when deputies arrived.

The front yard had no grass but rather hard dirt around the children's swing set.

The children, ranging from age 2 to elementary school age, were taken by another relative after the health department arrived, Wells said. The relatives also took the family's two dogs, two frogs and one tarantula.

The man who rented the house and his wife agreed to go to Valley Mental Health for an evaluation.

Interestingly, one of the few things working in the house was a video monitor connected to a camera pointed outside the front door of the house.

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com