Kara Berg, Tribune News Service
Pontiac city employees had known the home where three kids were found living alone in squalor was an unregistered rental as early as April 2020, a violation that was corrected only after the children were rescued last week, according to city records and officials.
City inspectors sent letters to the landlords at the Lydia Lane home in Pontiac five times in 2020 about the unregistered rental and once in 2022, and visited the home in June 2024 for an inspection of a new porch, Pontiac Code Enforcement Manager Jack McIntyre said Friday. The June visit was the only time inspectors went to the home, McIntyre said, but they did not speak to anyone.
Prosecutors said they think the mother left the kids to live alone as early as 2020 or 2021.
“They had no way of knowing about the conditions inside of the house or even that people were living there,” Pontiac city spokesperson Jacob Jefferson said. “No inspections were ever done inside the unit, and no inspections were ever ordered to be done inside the unit.”
Pontiac requires rental inspections be done to ensure the home is up to code.
McIntyre said it’s “very typical” for inspectors not to talk to anyone, except for maybe contractors, when they go to inspect work done outdoors.
The issue of the rental being unregistered was not resolved until after the three children were found by police, and the landlords, Ana and Luis Madaleno, did not register the home as a rental until Thursday, according to the city. A woman who answered a phone listed for Luis Madaleno said Friday the couple was not interested in doing an interview and hung up. Ana Madaleno did not respond for comment by phone.
The children’s mother, Kelli Bryant, who police said lived elsewhere in Pontiac while her children lived alone surrounded by trash and feces, was arrested Feb. 14 after her landlord called police to do a welfare check because he hadn’t heard from her and because she had not paid rent since October. Bryant was charged Thursday with three counts of first-degree child abuse, one count for each child, which could result in life in prison if she is convicted.
Bryant’s children — a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl — were found living in a “biohazard,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a press conference last week, and survived on weekly drop-offs of prepared food. Some rooms in the house had garbage piled as high as 4 feet, and deputies found mold and human waste throughout the house.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said Bryant moved into the Lydia Lane home with four children in 2019. At some point in 2020 or 2021, she moved out of the home and left the three of the children there, McDonald said. A fourth child — a now 9-year-old boy — went to live with his father.
“All three children expressed fear as to what their mother’s response would be if they left home,” McDonald said, during a press conference. “(The) defendant concealed the children from family and friends and lied about who was caring for the kids and their whereabouts. The defendant took the active steps of lying and concealing to make sure the children went undiscovered, and she took these actions knowing that her children would suffer serious, physical and emotional harm as a result.”
The evidence shows Bryant allegedly effectively abandoned the kids to a “revolting pit of refuse and squalor,” the prosecutor said. The 15-year-old boy would text his mother when they needed food, but that was the only contact they had, McDonald said.
The only time city inspectors visited the house was in June when an inspector came to check on the new porch and approve the work, McIntyre said. Inspectors stayed outside and “there is no reason that visit would have or should have raised any red flags,” city spokesperson Jefferson wrote in an email.
Code enforcement staff was small in 2020 when the majority of the unregistered rental letters were sent to the home, McIntyre said. Since McIntyre started with the city in 2022, he said inspectors have been going to properties to tag them.
In late 2022, the city had more than 25,000 unresolved rental registration violations, Jefferson said. It prioritized inspecting the registered but uninspected units, then “began the arduous task of reviewing the many thousands of non-homesteaded residential properties to determine which ones needed to be registered.”
The Lydia Lane home was never reviewed, and it didn’t pop up on the city’s radar again until the landlord called police for a welfare check Feb. 14.
Ana Madaleno was issued an ordinance violation Feb. 18 for not scheduling a rental unit inspection and was ticketed for having an unregistered rental. The complaint for the ordinance violence said an inspector “did interior inspection of human feces, garbage” and found unlivable conditions.
A couple of neighbors said they had never seen the three children at the residence and were shocked at the revelation.
The kids have been placed with a relative by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, McDonald said. Her office is asking to terminate Bryant’s rights to her children.