Crews have finished cleaning out the Blackstone house where a family was found living in filth, surrounded by feces, animals and even the remains of three infants.
The home is boarded up and new court paperwork shows just how much work crews had to do emptying it out.
“Oh boy, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I just went through there and I’m sick to my stomach. I’m telling you, you don’t want to go in there. The smell is terrible. I don’t know how they lived there,” Blackstone Town Administrator Dan Keyes said.
Joined by the town’s health director and fire chief, Keyes walked through the house where mattresses, drywall boards and hundreds of soiled diapers were removed.
“Seeing the floor, the walls, the stain from the dog feces and all that, even after the cleanup, it’s still pretty stained,” Health Director Bill Walsh said.
The cleanup took 90 hours and is estimated to cost more than $17,000, a price the home owner, Kristina Rivera, will have to pick up.
The town gave her notice that she was responsible for the costs incurred in the home where her brother, Raymond Rivera, lived with his girlfriend, Erika Murray.
Murray has been charged with fetal death concealment and Raymond Rivera is facing drug charges after police say they found drugs growing in the basement.
“I just can’t believe it. Going through seeing what I just saw after it has been cleaned up and you still could not live in there,” Walsh said.
A police log shows that Animal Control has been called to the address four times since Aug. 2011 for complaints about possible neglect of a dog. Police say there was no reason for them to enter the house during those responses.
Officials say it will take numerous meetings to determine what is next for the house, including whether it will be torn down or not.