Mom Hid Kids, Living and Dead, From Boyfriend: Cops

Erika Murray may or may not be the mother, but an investigation into the squalid conditions of her vermin-infested home in Massachusetts last week has unearthed a tragic discovery: the bodies of three deceased infants. That discovery comes on the heels of one made in late August, when state welfare agents removed four living children (ages 13, 10, 3, and 6 months) from her and her boyfriend Ray Rivera's 1,150-square-foot home—and her boyfriend claims to have only known about the existence of the older two, reports CNN. Murray, 31, is currently being held in a prison treatment unit for inmates at risk of hurting themselves, reports the AP, while her attorney says she was a "prisoner of her own fear" and that it's "kind of obvious that many things going on in her head were not real."

Though Murray has yet to be charged with homicide, she is facing a raft of charges that range from concealing an out-of-wedlock fetal death to two counts of allowing substantial injury to a child; she has pleaded not guilty to all. The Boston Globe reports that the deceased babies' genders, ages, and causes of death have yet to be determined. The house, which is on the same street as the police and fire headquarters, was initially visited in late August when a neighbor saw the crying 6-month-old covered in feces. The town of Blackstone has since spent more than $20,000 in cleanup efforts, digging through piles of dirty diapers, insect infestations, and the mystery of just how many people, dead or alive, were in the house. (In other grim news, a hoarder in Arizona managed to conceal her mother's dead body for four years.)