Couple arrested after young children found naked, living in 'disgusting' conditions
A couple are facing child abuse and endangerment charges after a neighbour reported them to police, who found their three young children living in filthy conditions, including a two-year-old “covered in faeces”.
Police who checked on the home of Alsatia Inks, 23, and Zachary Pacheco, 27, on Friday found it to be “gross and disgusting” and “unlivable and unsanitary,” according to court documents.
The neighbour told police two of the children came to the door of her home at Buckeye, Arizona. The five-year-old was naked, and the toddler was wearing only a dirty nappy and covered in faeces, so she called police.
Police found Inks locked in her bedroom working at her computer, with a five-year-old girl beside her. She told them she didn’t realise her son and younger daughter had left the house.
Officers found “gross and disgusting” living conditions inside the house, including “several days’ old dog faeces“ in a child’s bedroom, and faeces smeared on the bathroom walls, according to the court documents.
They also found old and spoiled food throughout the house, as well as piles of clothes, and dirty nappies and rubbish. There was also a steak knife on the living room floor and a butcher knife on the kitchen floor.
All the three children were taken to the hospital as a precaution and then placed with the Department of Child Safety.
Investigators said Inks’ partner Zachary Pacheco arrived home from work while police were there and told them the children make a mess and usually his partner cleans up after them, according to the arrest statement.
“The defendant blamed the kids for making the home this way and [said] that they clean all the time.”
Police took Inks and Pacheco into custody without incident. They were both released and are due to face court for a preliminary hearing on October 26.
