
The murder charges she faces have to do with two deceased infants, as well as the remains of a fetus, all of which were found in closets in the bedrooms.
A Massachusetts mother has pleaded not guilty to the deaths of three babies, whose skeletal remains were found in her home along with a number of other horrors, according to authorities.
Police charged 31-year-old Erika Murray with two counts of murder and seven other charges after finding her in a squalid home with the remains of her three children. She was ordered to be held without bail, according to the Associated Press. She faces a Feb. 4 court date.
Murray is mother to seven children, four of the mliving now, and had originally been charged with concealment of fetal death, a lower charge that she had pleaded not guilty to and caused her to be jailed on a $1 million bond.
A grand jury has now indicted Murray on nine counts, which include charges for assault and battery on a child and reckless endangerment of a child, as well as charges of cruelty to animals and concealing a fetal death.
Her lawyer said authorities have failed to produce any evidence that she has any connection to those deaths. Prosecutors, however, say that Murray gave birth to five of the youngest children in a bathroom in the house in an attempt to conceal their existence from the father, who allegedly did not want more children. Authorities believe she kept them in upstairs bedrooms that were packed with garbage.
The murder charges she faces have to do with two deceased infants, as well as the remains of a fetus, all of which were found in closets in the bedrooms.
The fetus even still had the umbilical cord and placenta still attached when it was found. Authorities found a three-year-old that was starving to death and couldn’t walk or talk with maggots in her ears, and a six-month-old had apparently spent her entire life on her back, according to the report.
Police responded to the home in mid-September after a neighbor reported that the children appeared to be neglected, and authorities found that the house was filled with dead animals, rodents, insects, and garbage. It took days for workers in haz-mat suits to clear out the house, which was eventually demolished.
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