Police: Couple forced child to live in car, filth

[MuffyBee]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/1642172/police-couple-forced-child-to.html
Police: Couple forced child to live in car, filth
A couple who police say slept in a car with their daughter for possibly eight years were charged with neglect.


Philipe and Sherrine Mathieu are accused of making their daughter sleep and go to the bathroom outside. They faced a bond court judge Friday.
CBS/MIAMI DADE BOND COURT



For years, a Miami couple and their daughter have been sleeping, crammed together, in a small car parked in the front yard of their home, police say.

They used a hose to bathe outside and plastic containers for waste.

On Friday, Miami police charged Philipe Mathieu, 62, and Sherrine Mathieu, 42, with 863 counts of child neglect, and their 16-year-old daughter is in protective custody.

His wife, Philipe Mathieu told police, cleaned compulsively and wouldn't let her husband or family inside their home on the 6300 block of Northwest First Court.

But police say the south unit of the duplex was nearly empty and very dirty.

``There are jugs with dark water, plastic bags, garbage and mildew,'' said Miami Police spokesman Delrish Moss. ``The smell was horrible.''

The north unit was much cleaner, with nice furniture, electricity and running hot water, Moss added. Through the open door, a large TV set, wall unit and flower arrangement could be seen.

Moss told reporters that investigators from the Special Victims Unit found a single twin bed there.

``The girl said that's the part of the duplex they use in case [the Department of Children and Families] comes looking,'' Moss said.

But the family's actual ``bedroom'' he said, is a red Pontiac Grand Am, shielded from view by a tarp covering the chain-link fence on the property's north side and a strategically parked Ford Windstar van in front. Several other cars on the property also obscured the Grand Am.

Moss said Philipe Mathieu told investigators he allowed the situation because ``he didn't want to have problems with his wife.''

The daughter, whom police would not name, said they've lived in these conditions since she was 8.

Moss said investigators found out about the Mathieus through DCF.

DCF spokesman Mark Riordan said Friday the agency had visited the home in November after allegations of family violence.

``We will move to shelter her over the weekend and bring her into the DCF foster system,'' he said.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI88052/
(video)
Parents charged with 863 counts of child neglect
May 21, 2010
MIAMI (WSVN) -- A couple is facing more than 800 counts of child neglect after they allegedly forced their child to live outside their home for years.

Shireen and Philip Mathieu appeared in bond court to face more than 863 counts of child neglect, Friday morning. A judge ordered the couple held on a bond in excess of $430,000.

According to City of Miami Police, the parents forced their 16-year-old daughter to sleep with them in a family car while they kept a neat home inside their duplex, which was also stuffed with garbage.

The Department of Children and Family has said they had visited the duplex, at 6329 and 6327 NW First Ct., on at least one occasion, investigating this family. "The little girl tells us that the nice house, where the furniture was that was the DCF house," explained Miami Police Commander Delrish Moss, "that was the house that was kept just in case DCF or investigators came looking."

Police said they were first notified about this girl's situation because she had been staying at a facility that assists troubled youth. Police also said she has run away in the past but never called police until now.

Police said the couple's daughter told them she spent half her life, from the ages of 8 to 16, sleeping and even going to the bathroom outside the home her parents owned. The parents have denied these accusations.

Police said the couple allowed garbage to pile up inside their home while they cleaned only a small section of it. "The entire family was not allowed to go into the house," said Moss. "The only thing that would happen during the day is mother would go into the clean part of the house and continually clean while piling all the garbage and filth into the other part."

Moss said the reason why the family would not sleep inside still remains a mystery. "Those are things we're still trying to figure out," he said. "I mean, detectives asked questions for hours, and they still have more questions to ask. There really is no good explanation for any of this."

Moss offered a view of the vehicle the family slept in for years. "What we're seeing inside is a makeshift bed, radio. It looks like they were trying to make all the comforts home, but certainly not a comfortable situation for a little girl and her mother and father to sleep in."

He also showed where the family "used the bathroom" outside the home. "Behind the car, the evidence of using the bathroom in plastic bags," Moss said.

Then, to clean-up, the child could only do that outdoors as well, according to Moss. "She said, she was never allowed to go inside the house. She had to shower with a water hose, she was given soap, just probably one of the more bizarre stories in my 26 years as a law enforcement officer."

"I think it's sad," said an unidentified neighbor. "It's like child abuse."

[MuffyBee]

http://cbs4.com/local/child.neglect.mathieu.2.1707753.html
Police: Parents Forced Daughter To Live Outside
May 21, 2010

MIAMI (CBS4) ―

A South Florida couple faces 863 counts of child neglect for allegedly making their daughter eat, sleep and use the bathroom outside for the past eight years.

The parents of the girl, who is now 16, stood before a bond court judge Friday and were ordered to stay away from the child. The judge also held them on a $431,500 bond.

Philipe Mathieu, 62, of Haiti, and Sherrine Mathieu, 42, of the Bahamas, are being held in the Miami-Dade County jail system.

Miami police spokesperson Delrish Moss said Sherinne and Philipe Mathieu would sleep in an old car in front of the home with their daughter. Moss said they would bathe in the backyard with a hose, eat outside and go to the bathroom outside.

Property records show the home on the 6300 block of Northwest 1st Court is owned by Philipe Mathieu. Mathieu purchased the four-bedroom, two-bath home in 2001.

Police say Philipe Mathieu had urged his wife to let them sleep in their duplex, but she would refuse and he did not want to upset her. They also said that one side of the duplex was very dirty and had one bed. The other half of duplex was cleaner, police said, but had no bed.

"When we talked to the girl about the cleaner of the two places, she said that was a DCF cover," Moss told CBS4's Tiffani Helberg.  "The place is filthy.  The bathtubs have not been used.  Roaches and all sorts of things are inside."

Police say the family would tell Department of Children & Families workers that the child slept on the one bed inside the duplex.

Inside, police found plastic bags that the family apparently used to defecate in and then clean out and reuse.

Police say this girl was crying out for help. At one point she tried to get into physical fights with her mother, and at another point she ran away hoping police would save her.


The DCF had been to the home multiple times and alerted police about the family's living conditions, but wouldn't say more.

Neighbors heard the commotion for years, but did nothing.

"I would hear her all the time, crying and begging her mama that she wanted to go into the house," one neighbor, who wished to not be named, admitted.  "Her mama used to cuss her out all the time.  Ever since I've stayed here, and I've been here, like, three years now."

Helberg was incredulous.  "So for three years you heard a child crying?"

"I didn't know what was going on."

Carolyn Shelton lived behind the house and could see clearly into the backyard.  "They were just weird people. I dunno, but for them to do that to that kid, that's unforgivable. That's unforgivable for doing that to that child."

"She seemed like a smart kid, but I didn't know how lonely she was," Shelton told Helberg.  "I did not know that.  God forgive me for not paying no attention."

A 16-year-old neighbor said, "It really made me feel sad because she's the same age as me. I tried to encourage her to go to school, 'cause she's the same age as me, but she just gave up."

The parents were originally held on more than $4 million bond, but a judge lowered the amount Friday.