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BLACKSTONE, Mass. — A neighbor who alerted police to feces-covered children living in squalor in Blackstone, Mass. house, says the children’s mother laughed when confronted about the conditions.

The bodies of three babies and several animals were discovered in the vermin-infested home last week, after the neighbor alerted authorities. The home was also filled with dirty diapers, trash and rodents.

Erika Murray, 31, was arraigned Sept. 12 on a bevy of charges stemming from the discovery of the dead infants at her home the day before, but she has not been charged in their deaths.

The neighbor told WCVB that she went into one room where she found the smallest baby on the bed, crying and covered with feces. She said she had to walk over soiled diapers to get to the child.

In another room, she found an older child. “He was sitting on a mattress, completely sunk in with feces, completely covered, his hair, his clothes, everything, was rocking back and forth,” the neighbor said.

The neighbor says when she asked the mother what she was doing, the mother “kind of laughed it off” and shrugged her shoulders. She also asked if the mother knew the three dead babies were in the home.

The mother replied, “I knew they were there.”

Murray pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing an out of wedlock fetal death, two counts of permitting substantial injury to a child, intimidation of a witness, cruelty to an animal and violating an abuse prevention order, according to Tim Connolly, a district attorney spokesman.

Her lawyer says Murray suffers from mental illness and five of her children were delivered at home.

Crews say they used bio hazard waste containers to remove materials from the home, including walls covered with feces.

Source: WCVB