Upon entering Lindsey Powell’s apartment, Connecticut police encountered a “horrible odor” and a scene so shocking it almost overwhelmed one of the officers, as reported by law enforcement. Powell reportedly abandoned her four children — aged 11, 6, 4, and 3 — to navigate their circumstances alone in a state of neglect while the stressed mother fled to New York.
“It was difficult to stand,” noted Vernon Police Officer Gregory Webster in Powell’s Nov. 8 arrest report, which was shared online this week by the local CBS affiliate WFSB.“The stench originating from inside the apartment was burning my nostrils,” Webster remarked, pointing out the presence of human and cat waste throughout the space, as well as heaps of garbage and swarms of flies.
“The living conditions in the apartment were deplorable,” Webster said. “The floor of the living room was covered in trash, toys, dirt, old food and clothes. It was difficult to walk in the living room without stepping on something or a bodily fluid … I observed human and cat feces on the floor by the sink in the kitchen and … throughout the entirety of the apartment there was crusty/moldy old food.”
A 40-year-old woman is accused of abandoning her children in a filthy apartment for a minimum of eight hours while she made a trip to upstate New York, as stated in her arrest report. She informed officials that she left them behind due to feeling “overwhelmed” and “depressed,” according to the report.
A friend mentioned that she had been expressing thoughts about driving her car off a cliff. According to the arrest report, Powell’s aunt informed authorities that she reportedly expressed intentions of ingesting “a bottle of pills” in a bid to end her life that day.
Authorities located Powell approximately “four and a half to five hours” away in Poughkeepsie, New York, with police stating she “had no intention of returning to care for her children” based on the evidence and her location at the time of her apprehension. The situation surrounding Powell’s living conditions remains uncertain, leaving questions about whether she endured these distressing circumstances prior to her reported breakdown or if her apartment deteriorated into disarray following her departure. Authorities responded to the residence to perform a welfare check after her purported misconduct came to light.
“Upon arrival, I knocked on the door … and spoke with an 11-year-old female,” Webster said. “Immediately when [the child] opened the door, I was hit with the smell of cat urine, rotting food and feces … I asked if her parents were home and she said, ‘No.’ [The child] said she did not know where her mother was, did not know when she had left or when she was coming back.”
The children found themselves in a predicament, unable to reach out to anyone due to their cellphone being out of order. He noticed them consuming spoiled food during his time at the residence, according to the report. Powell asserts that three of the children are on the autism spectrum. The whereabouts of their father remain uncertain, as does his potential involvement in the situation.
“I had difficulty standing in the bedroom for longer than a few seconds because of this smell,” Webster said. “The children, however, entered this bedroom without issue. I believed the children had become nose blind to the awful stench of the bedroom.”
Powell faces four charges related to the risk of injury to a child and is currently detained with a surety bond set at $250,000.