Mom, 2 kids in rat, roach infested home

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A mother is behind bars and her children are in protective custody. This after police said, Susan Hensley and her two children were living in a rat and roach infested home in the 600 block of North Alton Avenue. 

Hensley is the third mother to face child neglect charges in two days.

“We had officers that they described it horrific conditions you are walking into. As you are walking up to the house you can already smell the odor of feces and urine,” said Sgt. Matt Mount of the Indianapolis Metro Police Department.

A Indiana Department of Child Services worker making a welfare check called police. Officers said they found feces on the carpet and roaches on the walls and ceilings. Living among the roaches was Susan Hensley and her two boys, a 6-year-old and a 15-year-old.
Officers toured the bedrooms and said they found feces on a mattress. While inside one bedroom they saw a foot long rat walk across the room and enter a closet. Police said they saw dozens more rats scurrying through the house.

Click on the photo gallery to see pictures inside the home. 

"There's cockroaches all over everything in the kitchen. Open the refrigerator and the freezer and there's cockroaches crawling over the food and everything in the refrigerator," said Sgt. Mount.

Police said an 11-year-old boy was visiting the two boys that live in the home. That boy told police that one of the rats bit him.

John Ryan of the Indiana Department of Child Services said, "These are the types of cases that we see that our family cases managers see on a fairly regular basis."

Of the 20,000 substantiated cases Indiana family case workers manage every year about 15,000 are neglect cases. In fact, early Sunday morning, just a few blocks from Hensley's home police arrested two other mothers for the similar household conditions.

Jamie Pressley and Tiffney Johnson are also behind bars. There were four children inside the home. Police said it was infested with roaches and maggots. Officers said there was very little food.

Indiana Department of Child Services said they have 1565 case managers and are funded for 1592. On average the case workers manage 12 cases or up to 17 children.

A spokesman for the state said their numbers have not increased due to the economy, but admits it may be too soon to tell.