Inset: Kelli Bryant. Left, right: Home in Pontiac, Mich., where Bryant abandoned her three children, cops say (Oakland County Prosecutors Office).
A Michigan mother accused of abandoning her kids for years and forcing them to live inside a feces-filled home and sleep on pizza boxes was sentenced for accepting public assistance that was supposed to go toward taking care of them.
Kelli Bryant, 35, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $30,000 in restitution on Wednesday after she pleaded guilty last year to welfare fraud, the Detroit News reported. Bryant still faces three counts of first-degree child abuse, her most serious charges.
A judge also ruled on Wednesday that Bryant was competent enough to be sentenced on the welfare charges and stand trial for child abuse, per the Detroit News. She's slated to go on trial on Aug. 10.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the landlord of the home on Lydia Lane in Pontiac, which is about 25 miles northwest of Detroit, contacted the Oakland County Sheriff's Office on Feb. 14, 2025, to complete a welfare check because he hadn't heard from Bryant or received rent for months, a press release said. What deputies found at the home was a case of "abandonment, neglect and abuse of the highest order," Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.
The boy, then 15 years old, allegedly told deputies at the time that he and his sisters, age 12 and 13, have lived alone since 2020 or 2021. According to cops, garbage was stacked as high as 4 feet, feces were throughout the home and filled the bathtub, the toilet was overflowing, and mold was everywhere.
The children had not been to school since their abandonment and spent their days watching TV and playing video games, according to cops. And while Bryant had contact with her son, she had not seen the girls for several years, deputies alleged. The boy slept on a mattress while the girls slept on pizza boxes, cops said. Each week their mother or a "stranger" would bring prepared food and drop it off on the porch, deputies said.
Neighbors told cops that while they saw the mother dropping off food, they did not know children lived there. The kids were taken to the hospital for evaluation.
"They were wearing soiled clothing, their hair was matted, and their toenails were several inches long, making it difficult to walk," the sheriff's press release said, adding that the kids lack basic hygiene skills overall.
From Bouchard:
Throughout my extensive career in this field, I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order. This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for your three children. The young girls have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years. The far-reaching consequences of this abuse must be acknowledged.
An evidence technician processed the scene wearing a hazmat suit, according to deputies. Bryant said the father is not involved in the kids' lives. Child Protective Services placed the children in the custody of a relative.
While the kids lived in squalor, Bryant showed up to a police interview wearing clean clothes, sporting fake nails, and had her hair done, a detective testified last year at a preliminary hearing.
According to courtroom reports from Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV and ABC affiliate WXYZ, Oakland County Sheriff's Det. John Brish recounted his interview with Bryant.
Brish testified he was surprised by Bryant's appearance and demeanor. She allegedly admitted to putting herself before her children.
"'I hurt my children,'" Brish said Bryant told him. "'I sacrificed my children, probably.'"
Bryant also allegedly asked detectives if there was "anything I could do to help myself."
In addition, prosecutors reportedly noted that when they extracted data from Bryant's phone, her children were listed in her contacts not by their names but as "My oldest," "Kid 1" and "Kid 2." The children had her listed as "World's greatest mom" or something along those lines, prosecutors said.
"She knew that her actions were selfish, that's her wording and that it made her children sick and that she had ultimately sacrificed her children for her own purposes," Brish reportedly testified.
"I'd never smelled a home that smelled that bad without a decomposing body present," Brish also testified.