Blackstone home clean-up reveals soiled mattresses, dirty diapers

BLACKSTONE, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Cleaning crews spent 90 hours clearing unimaginable filth from the home where the remains of three dead babies were found.

Police say resident Erika Murray hoarded almost everything with her four children and her boyfriend also living in the house.

"I just went through there and I'm sick to my stomach," said Dan Keyes, the town administrator. "I'm telling you, you don't wanna go in there. And the smell is terrible. I don't know how they lived there."

Aftermath services' report shows cleaning crews removed soiled mattresses, clothes, dozens of dirty diapers, drywall and flooring.

"I just can't believe it," said Bill Walsh, a chairman on the Board of Health. "Going through, seeing what I just saw after it's been cleaned up, you still could not live in there."

The total cost for the cleaning, securing the property, and town administrative overages total about $25,000 and will likely go up. The final bill will go to homeowner Kristina Rivera, who has already racked up $100 in code violation fines.

Police say Rivera's brother Raymond was living in the basement of the house and is the father to at least some of Murray's children.

With the clean up complete, the question remains: Could anything have been done to prevent this terrible tragedy?

"The town did their job," said Walsh, "like I said, if you look at the house in its current condition, if you drove by, that's what you would see. No debris in the driveway. Nothing whatsoever."

According to their logs, Blackstone police have responded to the house more than 20 times since 2000. Erika Murray was reported to the Board of Health twice in 2010 and 2012 for trash around the house and Kristina Rivera was cited. School officials also said the two older Murray kids weren't enrolled in school just days before classes began this year.

In a statement released Tuesday, Blackstone Police Chief Ross Atstupenas acknowledged previous police visits to the Blackstone residence.

"While we will all wonder what could have been done to prevent this terrible tragedy, our officers continue to do their jobs well, and no one could have predicted the scene that investigators would find last week," said Chief Atstupenas.

"What we saw goes beyond heartbreaking," the Chief added. "It is nothing that any of the hundreds of noise complaints or well being checks our department performs every year could have possibly prepared us for, but I want to state that the Blackstone Police Department takes every call for service seriously and does an excellent job working for the good of the people of Blackstone every day."  

Beyond being boarded up, the future of 23 Saint Paul Street remains uncertain. Town administrators say that the decision process will be lengthy and could include sitting down with Kristina Rivera, something they have yet to do.

Cox Media Group