A 12-year-old girl called 911 late Tuesday night in Pontiac, Michigan believing someone was breaking into her home. But when deputies from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office arrived, they found something far more horrifying: three children — a 12-year-old girl and her two siblings, both age 9 — living entirely unsupervised in a squalid apartment.
The scene inside the unit on South Francis Street was described as “deplorable.” There was no running water, the kitchen sink was clogged, and investigators believe the children were using a cardboard box as a makeshift toilet. The space was filled with spoiled food, trash, human and animal waste, and three cats wandering amidst the filth.
When deputies asked the children where their mom was, they said she had not been home “since yesterday.” The mother, 31-year-old Teriomas Tremice Johnson, was located hours later in Ann Arbor and returned to Pontiac, where she was taken into custody.
Johnson now faces three counts of second-degree child abuse. She was initially set at a $250,000 cash bond, but during a Zoom arraignment she hurled a chair and shouted at the magistrate, prompting the judge to deny bond altogether. She remains jailed ahead of a probable-cause hearing on November 25.
The children are now in the custody of their biological fathers, and Child Protective Services has stepped in to provide care and evaluate their needs. School records show the oldest child was supposed to be enrolled, but attendance was sporadic.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard called the case “heartbreaking” and said it “defies understanding how parents blessed with the gift of a child could show such cruelty.”
The incident echoes another disturbing case earlier this year in Pontiac, where three kids were found living alone in a home full of garbage and cat-feces for years. Officials say it highlights the gap in oversight when children vanish from school and parental oversight disappears.
As the investigation continues, authorities are examining whether Johnson had left the children alone repeatedly and whether any neighbors, school officials or social services could have intervened sooner. Meanwhile, the children are being stabilized and the community is asking how such neglect could go unnoticed until tonight’s dramatic emergency call.
