CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- The filth inside the home was ankle deep and there was a trail of roaches from the bathroom to a four-month-old boy’s Pack ‘n Play, a former housemate said. The conditions were so bad, that housemate posted a note on the front door of the Leafycreek Drive home for everyone to see:
"A worthless piece of s---! A mother that deserves each and every year of a maximum sentence. Rot in prison."
Chesterfield Police arrested Jacklyn Owens on felony child endangerment, child neglect and assault and battery of a family member charges. Police determined Owens' children, a one-year-old child and a four-month-old child, were living in unsafe conditions.
Jacklyn Owens (PHOTO: Chesterfield Police)
"It's not good," Natasha Gray, who currently lives inside the same Leafycreek Drive home, said. "She don't deserve those kids or the one in her belly.”
Gray said roaches march all the way from the bathroom to the infant’s crib and claimed the room Owens herself stayed in was infested with fleas.
"There was filth in her room up to your ankles,” Gray said. “There was dog waste in that room that was white and on the floor. Dog poop don't get white unless it's been there for a long time.”
Gray said what was even more disturbing, was how Owens kept her baby quiet at night.
"They would tie a blanket around the kid’s neck with a pacifier so he'd keep it in his mouth, so she could sit on her butt and play games or mess with her phone," Gray said.
Neighbor Nicholas Rich said he wished he would have known what was happening inside the home.
"It’s sad to hear, especially because they're neighbors,” Rich said. “Maybe there was something we could've offered to help them avoid it."
Owens is free on bond. Neighbors said she was ordered to have no contact with the children who are now staying with other family members.
