The four boys thought it was their “forever home,” far from the putrid Denver apartment overrun with cats where they scrounged for food and never felt sunlight.

The siblings — whose case made headlines in 2013 — tasted their first root beer floats with foster parents Elizabeth and Darrell Hornbacher, and went on a road trip to sleep in a fancy hotel along Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile” and cook s’mores over a Michigan campfire.

But Elizabeth’s body was bruised from the boys’ violent outbursts, and the couple’s relationship with Denver County child welfare started rocky and broke down completely last month. The Highlands Ranch couple stopped adoption proceedings in August after tearfully telling caseworkers they could not handle all four boys — ages 8, 7, 6 and 3 — because their needs were so severe. They asked if they could adopt only two, they said, and were told it was all or nothing.

Two years after a police officer and a caseworker rescued the boys from an apartment on East 18th Avenue, so neglected they spoke in infant noises and were not potty-trained, the children still do not have a permanent home. They have stayed together, but they are now on their third foster-care placement.

Their story provides a glimpse inside the troubled and complex child welfare system as it deals with the aftermath of one of the worst public cases of abuse and neglect the city has seen.

Unfortunately, the boys’ troubles since entering the foster system are not that unique, say child welfare experts. Foster children, especially those with severe trauma and behavior problems, often live in several temporary homes before they are adopted, a cycle that teaches them — again and again — not to trust. Finding adoptive homes for multiple siblings is even harder.

The Hornbachers said they called off the adoption as a “preemptive” maneuver — they believed Denver County planned to remove the boys from their home any day and they could not handle the devastation after what had been months of emotional drama and fighting with child welfare officials.

The couple say Denver officials were too slow to help with child care and additional in-home therapy and were hypercritical during the home inspection process. They said a court-appointed guardian insinuated Elizabeth’s parenting skills were to blame for the behavioral problems. Denver County Human Services officials declined to talk about the case because of privacy laws, but court records show they were concerned the couple were arrogant and unwilling to listen to professional advice on how to handle the boys’ psychological problems.

More than two months after the boys moved in with the Hornbachers, the county approved funds for an “attachment therapist,” as well as a nanny to help watch them after school and in the evenings. The behavior problems — kicking, screaming, throwing shoes — began at breakfast and lasted until bedtime.

“If they had come to my rescue sooner, we might not be where we are now,” Elizabeth said. Darrell, a financial adviser, acknowledged that he thought he could help the children with love and a financially stable life, and that he “didn’t understand trauma like I thought I did.”

The Hornbachers wept as they described the night caseworkers took the boys away. A caseworker told the children this was not their “forever home” after all and that they were going somewhere fun, the couple recalled. In a moment of realization, just as the children were headed out the door, one asked for his scissors that he loved.

“Everything that is yours is in the car,” Elizabeth said as she bent down to look in his eyes, seeing panic. “I love you, and I always will.”

In Denver, the children had been living among hordes of cats, feces and maggots when a caseworker and police officer found them in September 2013. Their parents, who had previously lost three other children to the child-welfare system, were sentenced to jail, their parental rights terminated.

The boys lived for more than a year in a group foster home north of Denver, then last March moved to Douglas County with the Hornbachers, who heard about them through a friend’s Facebook post and wanted to adopt them.

But after four months, the couple said they knew they could not handle all four. The two boys with the most challenging issues, the Hornbachers said, need to live in a home where each is the only child.

The other two, and Elizabeth’s biological daughter, were suffering from abuse inflicted by the other brothers, the Hornbachers said. The couple couldn’t let those boys out of their line of sight for fear they would injure themselves or another child.

“The hardest decision we had to make was giving them up,” Darrell said. “We look at all four of those boys as our sons. We had to make a decision no parent should have to make.”

Denver Human Services legal services director Katie Smith

said the county tries to keep siblings together, unless professionals recommend it is not in their best interest.

“What we hear from former foster children is that being placed in foster care is often far more traumatic than the abuse they suffered that got them there,” Smith said. “What makes it more traumatic is if they lose contact with their siblings.”

Colorado law requires child-welfare departments to keep siblings together whenever possible. The law also allows officials to exceed capacity for a foster home willing to take a large group of siblings.

“It is always our goal to find children a permanent home as soon as possible,” she said. “However, we want to find them the right home. It’s more important to find them a home that can meet their needs after the history of trauma that they have experienced.”

Each time a child is moved, the child suffers further trauma and learns not to trust anyone, said Kendall Marlowe, executive director of the National Association of Counsel for Children.

The boys were taken from the Denver apartment after the youngest was brought to a hospital with a cut on his head that a doctor found suspicious.

A police officer and caseworker visited the home and found “the strong odor of a decomposing animal” and feces throughout the apartment. Flies covered “every surface” and the smell “became unbearable,” according to the arrest affidavit.

In 2006, child-welfare authorities removed the boys’ three older siblings from the apartment. Those children have been adopted by other families. The two oldest of the four boys discovered in 2013 were removed from the home when they were babies but were returned to their biological parents

.

As for the Hornbachers, their experience dealing with the child-welfare system has convinced them they will never adopt. The couple, who live in a spacious home and had traded in their BMW for a Suburban before taking the boys, said that despite the pain of the last year, they are grateful they were able to create memories of “all these firsts with these kids” — from their first banana splits to their first time using iPads.

“I hope they hold on to these memories in their hearts,” Elizabeth said. “Nobody can prepare you for this.”

Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593, jenbrown@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jbrowndpost