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Officials: Indiana Parents On Meth Left 2 Toddlers In House Of Squalor

Posted at 3:52 PM, Jul 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-21 15:52:50-04

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. (WLWT) – Police in Lawrenceburg, Indiana have taken two children from a dirty apartment and locked up their parents, part of a drug investigation that originated on Valley Drive.

WLWT reports in an apartment at an otherwise well-tended subdivision, officers said they found a 1-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl lying in feces in their cribs late last Sunday night, neglected and uncared for.

Police said both parents, Nathanial and Spenser Williamson, admitted they had used meth that day.

"They always looked like they were on drugs, for the most part," said Patience Hale, a young mother. "They didn’t even care about their kids I feel like."

Her impression of their living conditions is not a good one.

"I’ve stood in the doorway. It’s been pretty disgusting, very disgusting…There were diapers laying everywhere," she said.

Police arrested both the 30-year-old mother and the 28-year-old father, charging them with felony child neglect.

"And it was shocking that it was that bad," remarked

Sonja Heffron, who lives a few doors up from the couple.

She would see the whole family out at times, the children romping around.

When asked about what she observed, Heffron said the kids did not appear to be clean and mentioned that saddened her.

She said she would have never guessed conditions were as bad as how they were described in court papers.

The documents related how Stacy Smith, a family case manager, advised police about allegations of meth use around the children who were heard screaming a lot.

The affidavit stated the front door of the apartment was barricaded and that when police arrived to take a look, the mother let them in through the rear entrance.

Officers wrote she showed "signs of being under the influence of Methamphetamine, nervous and twitching in an unnatural manner, touching herself in an unnatural number of times, and talking very rapidly."

Lynn Deddens, the Dearborn County prosecutor, told us there has been a resurgence of meth users around Dearborn County for more than a year.

"They’re very selfish in the fact that they want to feed their habit and they will go about it to whatever extent is possible," said Deddens.

If convicted, both parents are looking at six months to 2 1/2 years in prison.

The children were removed from the apartment, which was described by police as dirty and in disarray.

They noted the daughter’s bedroom had a strong odor of urine.

The couple remained in jail as the week closed.

It is not known if they would try or qualify for the Jail Chemical Addiction Program offered to prisoners in Dearborn County, but we are told there are success stories from that program.