Woman Pleads No Contest After Abandoning Her 3 Kids in Trash, Feces-Covered Home for Years

A woman in Michigan pleaded no contest to charges of child abuse for abandoning her three children in a squalid house for years.

Kelli Bryant, 35, will spend six years in prison for leaving her son, 15, and two daughters, 13 and 12, alone in their Pontiac home since 2020 or 2021, according to a press release from Oakland County. The children were discovered during a welfare check in February of 2025 after their landlord called them because Bryant hadn’t paid rent in months.

According to a report from The Associated Press at the time, the children were left alone in the home without knowing how to take care of it or themselves. Trash covered the entire home, with some piles reportedly reaching four feet high. The toilet had become non-functional, so there was feces everywhere and the home was covered in mold. As a result, investigators had to wear hazmat suits while going through it after removing the children.

The outlet reports Bryant would occasionally leave food at the door for the kids or have it delivered. Drivers were reportedly unaware that there were children inside the residence who were unattended. Given how long the kids were left to fend for themselves, they were afraid to leave the apartment and let their hygiene diminish because they didn’t know any better. The 15-year-old told Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard that he’d only left the house twice; once was just to feel the grass.

According to Law & Crime, when the children were discovered, they had trouble walking because their toenails were so long. The outlet reports that Oakland County Sheriff’s Det. John Brish testified in court that he had “never smelled a home that smelled that bad without a decomposing body present.”

Brish also told the court that, during a preliminary hearing, Bryant appeared well-groomed, well-dressed and had her nails done. The outlet reports she was previously sentenced for welfare fraud in June for collecting public assistance funds meant to go toward the children, who instead were reportedly sleeping on old pizza boxes. Police would later find that she reportedly had the kids saved in her phone as “My oldest,” “Kid 1” and “Kid 2.”

Her parental rights were terminated in April, and the children were placed with relatives after receiving care. The Associated Press reported in 2025 that, just days after they were discovered, their health had already improved.