News

Actions

State releases 245-page report revealing deplorable conditions victim and 9 siblings were living in

Posted at 10:53 PM, Feb 15, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-16 11:22:37-05
The State Attorney's Office released the discovery file in the case of a Loxahatchee couple accused of starving their 1-year-old daughter to death. In the report, detectives highlighted the deplorable and filthy living conditions the couple's 10 children lived in. 
 
New pictures were released showing the inside of the Loxahatchee home Kristen Meyer and Alejandro Aleman lived in with their ten children. 
 
In one photo, a detective holds up a solid mass of dog feces found in a cage in one of the children's bedrooms. The detective wrote, the house had an overpowering smell of urine and feces that could be detected tens of feet away. 
 
 
In going through the home, detectives observed flies and gnats hovering over the kitchen garbage cans filled with dog feces.They said there was no food in the home, just a baby bottle and formula.
 
The carpets in the bedroom were described as stained. Detectives say the carpets were wet and smelled, toilets unflushed and not in order, dirty clothes piled up several feet in the laundry room. 
 
The conditions were revealed after Meyer and Aleman's 1-year-old daughter stopped breathing and was taken to the hospital last April. The emergency room doctor who pronounced the child dead told detectives it was "the worst case of starvation" he had seen in his career.
 
The 13-month-old died weighing 7 pounds 32 ounces, according to a medical examiner's report. She weighed one pound less than she did at birth. The ME report says she was also suffering from influenza, E.coli, a form of streptococcus, and a staph infection.
 
Neighbors told detectives they would see the children run outside dirty and unsupervised for hours. Investigators with the Department of Children and Families visited the home in 2015 and noted some of the children were not verbal and made grunting noises to communicate.
 
Meyer and Aleman are charged with first degree murder, child abuse, and animal cruelty. The state is seeking the death penalty. Their next court hearing is on April 3.