The skeletons of three infants were found in the home of Erika Murray and Ramon Rivera in Blackstone, Mass.

A neighbor was the one who called the police two weeks ago after she heard a crying child. Murray and Rivera’s four children were removed from the house and put into foster care once police and then the Department of Children and Families discovered the state of the residence. As reported by The Boston Globe, the house was filthy to the point of being condemned – there were dead and live rodents, diapers, and debris strewn throughout the dwelling.

Police searched the house this past week and found the skeletal remains of three infants.

Murray, 31, was arrested Friday on charges of child endangerment and concealing fetal death.

Erika Murray had four children, a 13-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl, and a 5-month-old girl. The two oldest attended public school, but Murray successfully hid the births of the two youngest from Rivera, 37, despite his living in the same house. A search of public records failed to turn up birth certificates for the two young children.

Wellesley lawyer Keith Halpern, who is Murray’s defense lawyer and spent many hours the day of Murray’s arraignment Friday speaking with her, sheds some light on the mystery surrounding the youngest of the four children; as reported by The Globe: “[Murray] lived in terror of their existence being known. She was frozen in this nightmare. She couldn’t get out of it.”

Halpern said, “I really don’t know” when asked if Murray’s fears were founded in threats of domestic violence from Rivera.

Murray, according to the neighbor, kept the younger two children’s relationship to Riviera from him by telling him she was babysitting them.

The infant and 3-year-old show signs of having been neglected. However, according to Halpern, Murray does not see herself as being neglectful of her children. She loved them and spent much of her day with them.

“As hard as this is to fathom given the allegations, she is completely attached to these children, including the two younger children,” said Halpern. He says she has been unconcerned about the carges she faces, but only about the well-being of her children.

Halpern believes, both by the state of the house and “by talking to her,” that Murray suffers from a mental disorder.