PONTIAC, Mich. (Court TV) — A Michigan woman faces spending years behind bars for abandoning her children.
Kelli Bryant (Michigan Department of Corrections)
Kelli Bryant, 35, pleaded no contest to three counts of first-degree child abuse on Thursday, the Oakland Prosecutor’s Office announced, a year and a half after her three kids were found in disturbing conditions alone in a home.
The three children, ages 15, 13 and 12, were found living in the home with no running water or functioning toilets in February 2025. When officers went to the home to perform a welfare check, they were met with a disgusting reality once they made their way inside. First responders described mountains of trash piled 4 feet high in the house; while the male child in the home slept on a mattress, his two sisters slept on pizza boxes.
The children told investigators that they had been abandoned by their mother in 2020; since then, someone would come to drop off prepared food for them once a week. Other than that, the children had no contact with anyone. The oldest child said he left the house twice in the years since they’d been left: once to check the mail and once just to touch the grass.
Investigators later said that Bryant had removed all the smoke detectors from the house to prevent an alarm from bringing any attention to the kids inside.
This image shows the bathroom inside a home where three kids were abandoned for years. (Oakland County Sheriff’s Office)
The children themselves had been hiding in a feces-filled bathtub when officers arrived, investigators said. Their hair was matted and their toenails had grown so long it was difficult for them to walk. Detective John Brish testified at a preliminary hearing in the case, “I’d never smelled a home that smelled that bad without a decomposing body present.”
In contrast, when Brish caught up with Bryant, he said she was clean, with her hair done and “long fake nails.”
“This plea will spare the children from testifying at trial and ensures Bryant remains incarcerated until they are adults,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement. “I’m hopeful the children she victimized will continue to have the space and resources to heal from this abhorrent trauma.”
Bryant faces at least three years behind bars when she is sentenced; she is currently out of custody on probation after she was sentenced to time served and supervision for collecting nearly $30,000 from welfare in payments for the children from 2022 to 2025.
Bryant is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on Sept. 1.
