“These three kids were entrusted to the care of their mother … and the evidence suggests that she effectively abandoned them to a revolting pit of refuse and squalor,” said Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor in suburban Detroit, Michigan.

“What stands out the most for me is, no love,” McDonald said later during a news conference. “There was nobody there to care for them.”

The 34-year-old mother, who McDonald named as Kelli Bryant, was in custody and awaiting a court hearing scheduled for Thursday local time.

The siblings – a 15-year-old boy and two girls, ages 12 and 13 – were hiding when police entered the Pontiac home Friday after a call from the landlord, who had not been paid since October.

“Police were astonished to find anyone in the location, because it appeared to be uninhabitable,” McDonald said, noting that the toilet was not working.

The children were covered with faeces, and the girls had trouble walking outside the home, she said.

At a hospital they struggled with flushing a toilet and brushing their teeth “because they had not done it in years,” the prosecutor added.

McDonald said the children likely had been alone since 2020 or 2021, communicating with their mother only through text messages when they needed food.

She was living elsewhere in Pontiac, about 30km north of Detroit.