A Michigan mother has been arrested after she allegedly abandoned her three kids in a home for 4-5 years, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

Officials say that the children were left in squalor, surviving on weekly drop-offs of prepared food. First responders said that four feet piles of garbage were found in some rooms. Mold and human excrement was also found throughout the house.

Deputies were called to a home in Pontiac, Michigan, on Friday afternoon to perform a welfare check and found the children — a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl — all by themselves. The sisters were locked in a bathroom when police arrived.

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The landlord of the home told police that he had not heard from the mother since December, with rent last being paid back in October.

The oldest sibling said that the kids had been abandoned by their mother in 2020 or 2021, surviving on prepared food dropped off by their mother or a stranger once a week.

Police say that the children had not attended school since their abandonment, passing the time watching television or playing games. It appeared the girls had not been outside the home for several years, with the boy sleeping on a mattress on the floor while the girls slept on pizza boxes.

The children were taken to the hospital for evaluation, with soiled clothes, matted hair, and fingernails so long that it was difficult to walk.

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The mother was arrested without incident at a separate location, while the kids are now in the care of a relative, organized by Child Protective Services.

“Throughout my extensive career in this field, I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a release on the arrest. “This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for three children. They have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years. The far-reaching consequences of this abuse must be acknowledged. We look forward to presenting this case to the prosecutor and ensuring that this mother faces the consequences of her actions.”

This story was originally published by Kellen Voss with the Scripps News Group.