Disturbing conditions uncovered inside Pontiac apartment where mother Kelli Bryant abandoned three children for years

“DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR OR LEAVE THE HOUSE”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, PROSECUTORS SAY A MICHIGAN MOTHER EFFECTIVELY ABANDONED HER THREE CHILDREN IN A SQUALID APARTMENT WITHOUT RUNNING WATER FOR YEARS… AND SHE HAS NOW BEEN SENTENCED TO UP TO 30 YEARS IN PRISON.

In February 2025, Oakland County deputies arrived at a Michigan residence to carry out a welfare check.

Inside the Pontiac apartment, deputies found three children living completely on their own, according to prosecutors.

The children discovered alone by authorities were a 12-year-old girl, a 13-year-old girl, and a 15-year-old boy, CBS News reported.

Deputies discovered that all three had been living surrounded by mold, trash, and an overflowing toilet, per CBS News.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard later described the residence as a “biohazard,” The Detroit News reported.

Evidence technicians had to put on hazmat suits while inside the residence, the newspaper reported.

The technicians also wore gas masks during their inspection, according to the report.

Prosecutors said the children had no access to running water inside the home.

They also had no access to working toilets, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office stated.

None of the three children had attended school, prosecutors said.

None of the children had gone outside, according to prosecutors.

An investigation revealed that the three children had been left alone in the apartment since 2020, CBS News reported.

They had lived by themselves for years.

Yet their mother, 35-year-old Kelli Bryant of Pontiac, had not severed all contact with the location.

Bryant would occasionally leave food outside the door of the residence, according to prosecutors.

“The defendant instructed the kids that they were not to answer the door or leave the house,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

“All three children expressed fear about what their mother’s response would be if they left the home,” McDonald stated.

“The defendant concealed the children from family and friends and lied about who was caring for the kids and their whereabouts,” the prosecutor said.

In April, Bryant lost her parental rights, according to prosecutors.

In July, Bryant pleaded no contest to first-degree child abuse.

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office stated that she had “effectively abandoned” her children in the home.

Bryant’s defense attorney, Cecelia Quirindongo Baunsoe, contended that “multiple failures” resulted in what the children endured, The Detroit News reported.

Quirindongo Baunsoe said Bryant “takes responsibility, she knows she did wrong,” according to the newspaper.

In a sentencing memorandum viewed by the newspaper, Quirindongo Baunsoe wrote that Bryant had been sexually assaulted outside the residence where she abandoned her children.

“Her trauma history and untreated mental illness directly contributed to her inability to safely care for her children,” Quirindongo Baunsoe also wrote in the filing.

And on Tuesday, September 1, Bryant appeared for sentencing in connection with the neglect, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.

A judge sentenced Bryant to serve six to 30 years in prison.

“You failed them,” Judge Mary Ellen Brennan told Bryant at her sentencing hearing, referring to her children, CBS News reported.

“You failed them hour after hour, month after month and year after year,” the judge said.

“This sentence holds Kelli Bryant accountable for the horrific neglect of three children,” McDonald said in a statement.

“Her plea spared the children from testifying at trial and ensures she remains incarcerated until they are all adults,” the prosecutor added.

Then there were prior fraud charges stemming from the same household.

In December, Bryant separately pleaded no contest in connection with welfare fraud charges in relation to her children’s benefits, according to the newspaper.

She received a sentence of two years of probation in that welfare fraud case.

Now, she faces years in state prison.

She failed her children.

She will remain behind bars.