Three bodies in total were found amid the squalor at 23 St. Paul Street in Blackstone, a town on the Rhode Island border, and on Tuesday, their mother was charged with murder in the deaths of two of them.
Erika Murray, 31, was indicted on nine charges in all, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early. Those charges included neglect, abuse, reckless endangerment, concealing a fetal death and even animal cruelty in addition to the murder charges. She’s being held on $1 million bail.
Her boyfriend, who also lived at 23 St. Paul, was also indicted Tuesday, but not on charges of murder. Ray Rivera, 38, was indicted on two counts of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury, two counts of reckless endangerment of a child, two counts of cruelty to animals and one count of cultivating marijuana. He is being held on $100,000 bail.
The baby had a ‘fairly full head of hair’ when investigators found its remains in a backpack in her home during a search in August, prosecutors told a court on Tuesday.
Along with another dead child found inside a closet, the baby was found dressed in a diaper and onesie, leading investigators to believe they had been born alive.
Her four children, ranging in age from five months to 13 years, were rescued from her filthy home on August 28 after her 10-year-old son went to a neighbor’s home asking for help to quieten the crying five-month-old baby.
The neighbor found the youngest child covered in feces.
Neither the baby nor Murray’s three-year-old child have birth records and both are severely malnourished. authorities said. The infant is extremely sensitive to sunlight and the three-year-old cannot walk, has poor muscle tone and only makes a few sounds.
In court on Tuesday, prosecutors said the three-year-old’s muscle tone suggested that she had spent most of her young life on her back.
Blackstone code enforcement officer Bill Walsh said when he walked inside the smell was overwhelming, and that the second floor looked like a landfill.
He recalled rooms covered in feces, maggots and hundreds of dirty diapers.
