OCOEE, Fla. — An Ocoee couple was jailed and their six children handed over to state officials after police said they were found to be living in filth.
Sametta and David Daugherty were arrested last week after police said they were found living with their children in a house so filthy that it has been condemned.
Their children have been handed over to the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Neighbor Jack Colyer told Channel 9's Steve Barrett that he wasn't surprised that the children were removed from the house.
"From the condition of the house, it's just, I can only imagine what the inside looks like," Colyer said.
Police said garbage was scattered throughout the house, the children hadn't been bathed and there was nothing for the children to eat.
"The only food source we found in the house was a cooler. It had 15 beers and some chicken nuggets in it," Lt. Mike Bryant of the Ocoee Police Department said.
Bryant said DCF workers have tried to help the family in the past, and instructed them to clean up their house several times, but the Daughertys did not seem to understand how serious police were about the condition of the home.
Police said that when Sametta Daugherty was arrested, she was seven months pregnant and appeared to be intoxicated.
"She was smoking cigarettes one after another and they actually thought that she was under the influence of other kinds of drugs, so Mom isn't taking care of the unborn child either," Bryant said.
The parents were both charged with child neglect. They have bonded out of jail.