Source: Parents Of Kids Found In Filthy Home Were Given Second Chance

A Tulsa couple is in jail for child neglect after police say they found the couple's children living in filth.

Officers say the house was filled with rotten food, cockroaches, trash and dirty diapers.

Sources say the children were removed from their home in February, because of filthy conditions, but were returned to their parents for a trial run in May.

They tell us a DHS worker checked the home about two weeks ago and found it acceptable.

But someone didn't think it was acceptable and called the hotline number Tuesday night, and that's what prompted DHS and police to go to the home for a wellness check.

Just from the outside of the house, you can see the neglected yard and appliances left outside. A car in the driveway has broken back and front windows, with glass shards all over the ground and on the seats.

8/7/2013 Related Story: Tulsa Police Arrest Couple After Finding 3 Children In Filthy Home

Police say, when they went inside, they were overpowered by the terrible smell. It caused one officer to gag.

"It was...a combination of cigarette smoke, cat urine, human waste and trash," said Sgt. Mike Parsons.

He said Matthew and Angela Prior, three children, and a grandmother were inside, hanging out and watching TV when officers entered.

The father told them the house had only gotten messy a few hours earlier, when company stopped by and got out of hand, but the Parsons said that didn't explain what he witnessed.

"There were open electrical wires, liquid on the floor near outlets, knives and trash on the floor, thousands and thousands of cockroaches and flies and fleas, piles of garbage, human waste on the floor. It was absolutely disgusting," he said.

Parsons said there were huge cockroach nests at the front door, behind the stove, and above the kids' beds. He said no reasonable person could think the house was fit for a human to live in, let alone children.

He said none of the kids, ages 2, 3, and 5, objected to going to the DHS shelter.

Sgt. Parsons even had a roach crawling on his uniform after he got back to the police station to do his report, from just being inside the home.

"You could see the fleas jumping on the furniture. There were so many flies, you could actually hear a buzzing sound when the door was closed," Parsons said.

Police say they are going to arrest the children's grandmother, as well, since she was the primary caregiver for the children.

They say additional arrests could be possible.

DHS says it's against the law for them to discuss individual cases, but did say it's not unusual for parents to do what's required for them to get their kids back, then slip into their old ways again.

They say DHS workers aren't alone in deciding when to take kids or put them back, that prosecutors and judges are involved as well.