SEATTLE — Parents of the three children found padlocked in a Lake Stevens home, living in deplorable conditions were sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation, the Everett Herald reports.
QUICK FACTS:
- Three children abandoned in home earlier in year
- One child has new home
- Parents admit conditions 'not ideal'
- Mother is pregnant
Officers found three children — ages 7, 3, and 11 months — inside a filthy duplex earlier in January; they were allegedly in the home alone for days. The young children were surrounded by animal feces and garbage without heat or food.
Police said the baby had a body temperature of 94.1 degrees and was barely moving.
Child Protective Services took the three into custody. Parents Amanda Foley and Mark Dorson have served nearly all of their jail time with their credit for time served, according to Everett Herald.
One of the girls now has a new life and new parents, thanks to a paternity test.
The new parents of Cheyenne, 7, talked to KIRO 7. Maria Lewis never knew that her husband was the father of Cheyenne, but that didn't stop the couple from adopting the young girl after a news story told them of her plight.
"I think it just makes us feel so good to be able to provide for another child, and there are just so many firsts for her," Lewis said.
The Lewis' are still working to get custody of Cheyenne's 3-year-old brother, even though Kevin is not the biological father.
They have already started the adoption process.
>> PHOTOS: 3 young children abandoned, living in squalor
>> The breaking story: 3 children found abandoned inside house living in deplorable conditions
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Katie Wetmore dropped the felony charge against Foley, who is pregnant, and Dorson.
The defendants pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree abandonment of a dependent person, a gross misdemeanor.
Lake Stevens Police Commander Dennis Taylor told KIRO 7 that the parents, Mark Dorson and Amanda Foley, had actually come back to their Lake Stevens house while police and fire units were rescuing their children on Jan. 31.
Taylor said Dorson and Foley had watched as medics treated their 11-month-old baby, who was hypothermic and dehydrated. The parents hid from view and did not identify themselves to authorities that night.
In audio recording released from police, both parents acknowledged that having children in those living conditions was far from ideal.
Foley said they had struggled with keeping power on and that the last time they had heat in the house was before last summer.
"Just trying to do the best we can with what we have to give them a roof," she said.
A state social worker said three Lake Stevens children were "smiling and happy" just months before they were found abandoned. But seven months before, a social worker called it "clean and uncluttered."
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