Woman arrested after authorities find her six kids covered in lice, open sores, and living in a 'deplorable' home
On Wednesday, a woman was arrested by Florida sheriff's deputies after she allegedly left six children at a home whose living conditions were described by officers as “some of the worst they had ever seen.” The Marion County Sheriff’s Office took to Facebook to announce that Sara Nicole Resko was charged with six counts of child neglect after officers found two young children “wandering in the road” as they responded to the residence in the Porter Shores neighborhood.
The sheriff's office revealed that they found a 2-year-old girl who was "not fully clothed" and a 4-year-old boy who was found to be “infested with lice and covered with open sores." The little girl was not clothed from the waist down and a witness provided a towel to the child so she could cover up.
According to the sheriff's department, deputies tried to determine where the children had come from. Just moments after the two children were found, four others rode by on their bikes. The kids, aged 6, 8, 9 and 13 years old, told deputies that Resko had left them by themselves and gone to work.
Officers further revealed that the house was overrun with flies and littered with dog feces everywhere. The residence lacked food, running water, electricity, and the children slept on bare mattresses on the floor. According to the photos released by authorities, they found empty cardboard boxes, a two-liter bottle of half-consumed Dr. Pepper and what appeared to be ketchup were the only items in the filthy home’s refrigerator.
The sheriff's department also informed that "all of the children were infested with lice and covered with open sores."
Officers recounted their confrontation with Resko, who came to find the deputies at the residence and told them she had been out only “for a few minutes." However, she changed her story when authorities told her they were at the scene for over an hour. There were two prior incidents in April 2017 and February 2018 respectively when authorities found Resko's children “left unsupervised.” Apparently, officials with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) “implemented a supervision plan with Resko" after the second incident.
The sheriff's department said that the six kids were placed in DCF custody after deputies "determined that Resko failed on multiple occasions to provide care and supervision for these children.”
Body camera footage from Resko’s arrest shows her crying and is heard telling deputies “this is so stupid” before getting into a patrol vehicle. She is being held in the Marion County Jail on a $12,000 bond, court records show.