Inset: Kelli Bryant. Left, right: Photos of the home in Pontiac, Mich., where Bryant abandoned her three children (Oakland County Prosecutor's Office).
A Michigan woman who left her three children to fend for themselves while she carried on a kid-free lifestyle will not fight the charges against her.
Kelli Bryant, 35, pleaded no contest to three counts of first-degree child abuse in connection with the discovery that she abandoned her three children at a home that became overrun with filth. Her children, who were 15, 13, and 12 years old when they were found by themselves at Bryant's home in Pontiac, Michigan, during a welfare check on Feb. 14, 2025, told police that they had been on their own since 2020 or 2021.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Bryant was sentenced for welfare fraud in June after she pleaded no contest to receiving public assistance funds meant to go toward supporting the children she now admits to abandoning. Her parental rights were terminated in April and the children were placed with relatives.
The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office said Bryant left her three children by themselves in a "squalid apartment without running water or functioning toilets." After Bryant left, the children stopped attending school and stopped leaving the house. Bryant reportedly had some contact with her 15-year-old son, but never spoke to or saw her two younger daughters. Law&Crime reported that she had her children listed in her phone as "My oldest," "Kid 1," and "Kid 2."
According to police, the kids spent their days watching television and playing video games. Bryant and a "stranger" would drop off food. The living conditions were so bad that 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 son slept on a mattress on the floor while the two daughters slept on pizza boxes.
The children were also unaware of how to take care of themselves and had trouble walking because their toenails were so long.
Oakland County Sheriff's Det. John Brish testified in court that he had "never smelled a home that smelled that bad without a decomposing body present."
Brish also told the court during a preliminary hearing that when he interviewed Bryant, she showed up well-groomed and dressed with her nails and hair done. She reportedly admitted to Brish, "I hurt my children. I sacrificed my children, probably."
Bryant is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1.