Bucks County parents of 7 charged. Sick kids living in filth, with rats, no food, police say

Inside the mouth of the 6-year-old boy, doctors found 13 visible cavities, five teeth requiring immediate extraction, another six teeth that required crowns and a “dangerous” abscess needing immediate treatment.

His 8-year-old sister, authorities say, needed five teeth pulled and five others were fitted with crowns.

Maggots were living in their 12-year-old sister’s hair. The youngest sibling, just 4 years old, had ringworm. All but one of the seven children was also clinically malnourished, according to court documents.

None of the siblings, the oldest of which was 16, had ever attended school. All were found living in a three-bedroom mobile home in Sellersville with destroyed and disintegrating walls and floors, bugs and a locked refrigerator, according to authorities.

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Some of the children did not know their birthdays.  None of them liked being around people.

What was going inside a trailer at the Green Top Mobile Home Park was only discovered after a neighbor allegedly saw children removing items from an abandoned trailer and called police. All allegations were included in court documents.

On Friday, the children’s parents, Shane William Robertson, 47, and his wife, Crystal, 37, were charged with seven felony counts of endangering the welfare of children. The couple are free after each posting 10% of $10,000 bail.

Authorities became aware of the family when Pennridge Regional Police Department responded to a theft report in the 600 block of Rosann Lane on April 23. There they found a 12-year-old girl in the front yard of a mobile home next door to where the theft was reported.

The girl began explaining to the officers that her parents told them not to go into the abandoned trailer, but she only took a blanket to keep her pet rats warm because her parents didn’t have much money left, according to a probable cause affidavit.

She also told police, “her parents should not be held responsible,” the affidavit said.

The girl was described as barefoot. The hood of her sweatshirt was over her head and she told the officers she has “social anxiety.”

Minutes later, her 14-year-old sister came out from the rear of the property. She was wearing dirty clothing and work boots that were too big for her feet, the affidavit said.

Both girls admitted to entering the trailer, and mentioned that they do not have very much money.

About 25 minutes later, police spoke to Shane Robertson on the phone and he and his wife returned to the property. The officers advised the couple they had concerns about the health of their daughters based on their appearances and asked to look inside of the trailer.

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Shane Robertson let the officers in where police described the interior as in “obvious disrepair and disarray.”  They also found the refrigerator door secured with a bicycle lock.

Crystal Robertson explained that the children had been going through so much food they had to lock the refrigerator “because they were stealing everything,” the affidavit said.

“Garbage disposals with legs,” is how she described the children to police.

When the refrigerator was opened, police found “very little” food inside.

One of the officers asked Shane Robertson how many children were living in the home. He called for his 16-year-old daughter who was in a back bedroom.

Police described her appearance as unkempt.  She told the officers she heard them outside, but was watching the youngest child.

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After the officers left the home, they filed a report with ChildLine, the state’s child abuse reporting system.

Several hours later, Pennridge police were asked to return to the home, after a Bucks County Children and Youth worker visited the home and found more children hiding in a rear bedroom, police said.

This time, Shane Robertson allegedly told police he didn’t tell them he had seven children because he didn’t want to get in trouble. The six girls and one boy were taken to Grand View Hospital for evaluation based on their physical appearance.

Around 7 that evening, police met with Crystal Roberterson and photographed the entire trailer.  They found the lower half of the bathroom door missing.  The Robertsons slept on a bed surrounded by animal cages.  The sheets did not appear to be washed for weeks or months. There was garbage in the room and holes in the wall.

A second bedroom did not have a door and it was blocked off with a broken washing machine. The floor was cluttered with dirty clothing and garbage and missing sheetrock on the wall, which needed repair, police said.

The third bedroom had only a “filthy” mattress in the middle of the room covered with a “dirty” blanket with feces on it. There was also feces in the entrance to the room. Two dozen rats in cages were also housed in the room.

In addition to the rats, police also found the family had two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads and a four-foot Tegu reptile also living in the trailer.  Police stated the only “notable food” found in the trailer was for the animals.

At the hospital, two of the seven children tested positive for COVID-19, two had “low kidney function.” Three children had fevers and were diagnosed with acute viral syndrome.   All the children were placed in foster care, where they remain.

Soon after the children were removed from their parents custody, the full extent of their neglect was revealed, authorities said.

Four of the children have speech impediments.  Four were so underweight they were referred to a nutritionist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. CHOP doctors diagnosed four of the children with poor eyesight requiring glasses.

Police also learned the 12-year-old whose hair was infested with maggots had bad sunburn on her scalp and neck last summer, which made it too painful to brush, police said. She eventually couldn’t brush or wash her hair because it became matted.

As a result, the girl had to have most of her hair shaved off.  Another sister also had to have most of her hair shaved for similar matting, police said.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: 7 Sellersville kids living in squalor, parents charged with endangering