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Two children found home alone in Roxbury

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 6, 2009 12:36 PM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Two toddlers are in state custody today after Boston police found a three-year-old boy wandering a Roxbury street and a two-year-old girl by herself inside a foul-smelling apartment.

Police said the boy was spotted around 1:36 a.m. walking on Shawmut avenue in clothing not warm enough for the temperature and with sneakers on the wrong feet. There were possible injury marks around his mouth, police said.

Residents recognized the boy and directed police to an apartment on DeWitt drive where they found the front door open and inside was the baby girl wearing just a diaper. No adults were home at the time, police said.

Police said the apartment was unfit for children because of an accumulation of trash, rotting food, unwashed clothes was found inside. Emergency Medical Services transported the children to Boston Medical Center.

Police, meanwhile, stayed in the apartment and were there when the mother came home. She told police she had been gone no more than 10 minutes, although the officers noted they had been inside the apartment for more than 20 when the mother arrived.

The Department of Children and Families was alerted and the state agency is pursuing getting custody of the children, police said.

The mother was later taken to the hospital for an undisclosed illness. The case is under investigation by police and the DCF and no criminal charges have yet been filed against the mother, police said.