Daytona Beach, FL - Daytona Beach Police arrested two women on Wednesday after they found seven children living in an apartment that was covered with feces, urine, and wall-to-wall mold.
Sisters Melida Jenkins, 27, and Shameka Jenkins, 31, were both charged with felony child neglect when police found filthy conditions in their apartment after responding at approximately 4PM for an unrelated domestic abuse call. After the officers established that the suspect involved in the domestic abuse complaint was no longer there, they noticed the children running around the apartment in deplorable conditions. The arresting officer, James Thomas reported that he "might arrest someone for letting an animal live there."
Melida Jenkins told the officers that two of the children were hers and that she was helping baby-sit the other five. The other five children belonged to Shameka Jenkins, who, according to the report, blamed her apartment management for not helping clean or repair her apartment.
According to the arrest report, there was an infant running around barefoot on a carpet that was covered in mold, and the air was a mixture of mold and feces. The children were lying on a mattress with no sheets and one dirty blanket, and there were dirty diapers on the bedroom floor. There were roaches and other bugs crawling around every room of the apartment, and it was hotter inside the apartment than it was outside (86 degrees). There was no air conditioning.
Officer Thomas also reported that all of the children looked malnourished, and there was not enough food in the kitchen for all of the children. The oldest child was eight years old, but looked to be about four or five. "In 28 years of police-work in the City of Daytona Beach, these are by far the worst living conditions I have ever seen children exposed to," Thomas stated in the arrest report.
The Department of Children and Families was contacted, and temporary custody of the children was given to the mother of the two sisters, Terry Jenkins. The sisters were released after posting $2,500 bond each.
(Shameka Jenkins's mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
(Melida Jenkins's mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
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