MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A woman has been arrested after six children in her care were found to be infested with lice and covered with open sores as they were wandering the streets alone, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
A concerned resident in the Porter Shores neighborhood called authorities Tuesday afternoon to report that two young children were roaming around dirty and partially clothed.
When the deputies arrived to the area of Banyan Course, they found a 2-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, both of them covered in open sores and infested with lice, the report said. The young girl was in the worst condition, with multiple open sores on her face, arms, legs and chest. She was naked from the waist down, officials said.
Four of the children's siblings -- ages 6, 8, 9 and 13 -- approached deputies as they were speaking with the younger children. They told deputies all six of them came from a home down the road and they'd been left alone while their caretaker, Sara Resko, was at work, according to the affidavit.
When deputies went to the home where the children lived, they encountered what they described as "deplorable" conditions.
The floor was caked in dog feces, flies were swarming all around, the children only had mattresses on the floor to sleep on and there was no running water, no food and no electricity, the report said.
Deputies said Roseko arrived home an hour and a half after authorities initially arrived, although she tried to say that she had only been gone for a few minutes before changing her story.
Records show that deputies have been called to the home in the past under similar circumstances and the Department of Children and Families has been involved with the family.
Resko was charged with six counts of child neglect.
Body camera video from the arrest, embedded above, shows Resko crying and pleading with deputies.
"This is so stupid," Resko says before being placed in a patrol vehicle.
DCF took custody of the six children, who will be placed into an alternate home.