Mom arrested after kids are found alone with teen in filthy home

LORAIN — A Lorain mother was arrested Sunday after police found her five children alone with a 17-year-old neighbor who told police he did not know how to care for them.

Boyer

Osiris Boyer, 22, of the 3100 block of Colorado Avenue, was arrested and charged with five counts of child endangering. Police were called to Boyer’s home at 2:50 p.m. Sunday after a neighbor reported seeing Boyer leave the home without the kids.

Police arrived to find the front door of the home open and five young children, ages 1 to 4, crying and walking around the home. A 4-year-old was wearing a dirty T-shirt and another child was completely naked and soaking wet, according to a police report.

A 17-year-old, who was a neighbor asked to watch the kids, was sitting on the couch of the neighboring residence, a duplex, with the door open. He said the children’s mother left 10 minutes prior to the officers’ arrival, and he was asked to keep an eye on the children, but he told police he had “no clue how to take care of small children” or change a diaper.

Police said two of the children’s diapers had not been changed in hours and the house had the stench of garbage. A police report noted that three vacuum cleaners were sitting at the top of the stairs, making it difficult for the children to come downstairs, and the bathtub was filled with dirty water and food, which the children had been playing in earlier.

The officer noted that it would have been easy for the children to drown with no adult supervision.

Police said there were no beds in the home, just mattresses thrown on the floor, and the home was cluttered with garbage and filth. The freezer was empty, the report noted, and the only food in the refrigerator was a moldy pan of lasagna and four unopened cans of Bud Light beer.

At 3:03 p.m., Boyer returned to the home and asked why there was an officer in her home. Police said when Boyer was informed that police were investigating a child welfare complaint, she said, “Oh well, arrest me then I guess.”

According to the report, several other people came into the home, yelling at the 17-year-old for not watching the children. Boyer told police she “only left for five minutes,” although police estimated she was gone for 23 minutes, and said she did not know the 17-year-old but felt comfortable leaving him alone with the kids.

A 17-year-old roommate of Boyer’s told police the two went to pick up Boyer’s boyfriend and not the store, as Boyer had originally told police.

Boyer told police her parents had disowned her and would not take custody of the children. The father of the children, who lives in Cleveland, was contacted, and he told police he did not have transportation but would try to arrange something to pick the children up. Police said they never received a return phone call from the father, so officers contacted Lorain County Children Services to take the five children.

Police said Children Services has an open case involving Boyer.

According to Lorain Municipal Court documents, Boyer has multiple criminal convictions, including resisting arrest, criminal mischief, aggravated menacing and theft in 2003 and 2004, and a domestic violence conviction in 2009.

Contact Chelsea Miller at 329-7123 or cmiller@chroniclet.com.