A filthy existence

Within a half-mile of Cape Girardeau's rejuvenated downtown, police have found two filthy and dangerous houses not fit for children.

Just blocks from Cape Girardeau's new floodwall mural and the renovated historic buildings, children have been taken from a house where a 5-gallon bucket was being used for a toilet in a rotting shed.

At another location, the smell of rotting food and animal feces twice forced a police officer to step outside for fresh air when he was called to the residence for a fight that had broken out between a juvenile and a man who is now facing trial for sexually abusing one of the three children living there.

That case was discovered April 15.

The woman who called the police, Terri Marie Duncan, 26, of 426 North St., Apt. A, was charged with one count of felony child endangerment. Duncan will be in court today in Jackson for a preliminary hearing.

More recently, police and Missouri Children's Division workers on Sept. 12 went to a home at 215 Pearl Street, where they found six children living with their mother amid mounds of garbage in a home with no gas or water service.

No one has been charged in the Pearl Street case. An enormous pyramid of garbage more than 6 feet tall now sits outside the large, two-story Pearl Street home.

Conditions in the two homes are similar to those found in a rural Perry County mobile home Aug. 3, when sheriff's deputies and social services workers investigated conditions surrounding the illness of 4-year-old Ethan Patrick Williams. The parents in that case, Emily and Michael Altom, each 25, were charged with voluntary manslaughter and child endangerment after Ethan died of a virulent, antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

Terri Duncan called police April 15 to the basement apartment she shared with three children aged 4, 6 and 8; and Jeffrey D. Anderson, 26. According to a sworn statement filed with the charge against Duncan, Cpl. Zeb Williams said Duncan "failed to clean the home, allowing massive amounts of trash, dirt and animal feces to accumulate."

Those words don't begin to detail the mess found in the apartment, police Sgt. Barry Hovis said. "The odor at the apartment was nauseating. You could not tell the color of the carpet because of the dirt. He had to leave the apartment twice during the visit for fresh air."

A man who identified himself only as Duncan's husband answered the door at the apartment Monday and said she had nothing to say about the case.

Duncan called to report a fight between Anderson and a juvenile at the home. Under questioning, Anderson admitted to having molested one of the children repeatedly and to have viewed child pornography on his computer.

Anderson is set to go to trial Nov. 30 before Judge Benjamin Lewis at the Cape Girardeau County courthouse in Jackson. He is charged with three counts of statutory sodomy for molesting a child under the age of 12.

The charges carry a possible prison term of five years to life.

Duncan's husband described Anderson Monday as a family friend who was staying with them in the apartment.

James Griffin of Wappapello, father of at least one of the children, could not be reached Monday for comment.

Police notified the Missouri Children's Division after seeing conditions at the home, Hovis said. He was unsure what actions had been taken.

In the case of the home on Pearl Street, when officers arrived they found dirty diapers lying on the floor, no running water, rotting food and an overflowing five-gallon bucket being used as a toilet placed in a rotting shed behind the house, Hovis said.

A visit to the home Monday afternoon revealed a towering mound of trash. Garbage bags were mixed in among old carpet, appliances and furniture. The pile was six feet tall, stretched for 15 paces and was approximately five feet wide at the base.

Inside the home, rotting walls warped in to the living space and gaping holes in the floor showed the ground underneath.

The mother agreed to let case workers take the children to relatives, Hovis said. The voluntary agreement would allow the children to return to live with her when she finds suitable housing, he said.

The home was being rented from a relative, Hovis said. "The relative was actually the landlord and the complaining party," he said.

None of the children were in need of medical care when police and social service workers arrived, Hovis said. Workers from the Children's Division have been meeting with the parents to direct them to agencies able to help create better living conditions.

Photos of the home's interior and police statements about what they found have been sent to prosecutor Morley Swingle's office, Hovis said.

No decision has been made about charges, Swingle said Monday.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126