Photos show conditions in home where 2 local children were found dead

Photographs obtained by KWTX show the conditions inside a home without electricity or running water where Temple police found two local children dead, their mother unresponsive and two older girls with virtually nothing to eat or drink.

Two-year-old Terric Boyd and 1-year-old Janea Boyd were found dead in the home on Sept. 30 at West Avenue P and South 35th Street, along with a woman identified as their mother, Terrikah Haynes, 36, who was conscious, but unresponsive and two girls, ages 4 and 6, who were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Haynes was arrested on Oct. 16 and remains in the Bell County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $300,000 charged with two counts of child endangerment, according to online records.

Services for Terric and Janea are at 1 p.m. Friday at the Brandford Dawson Funeral Home at 718 South 7th St. in Temple.

The photos, obtained from a person close to the family who asked not to be named, show clothing strewn about throughout the house, an overturned stroller, and an overturned bed.

One photo, that appears to have been taken inside of Haynes’ bedroom shows trash, clothing and books strewn out and a mattress with a large stain on it.

The photos support police accounts of what they found after they obtained a search warrant following the discovery of the bodies of the two children.

“Officers observed that the home did not have electricity or running water. There was also no food or fluids in the home for consumption,” Temple police spokesman Cody Weems said.

The officers who found the children on Sept. 30 determined that the house had neither electricity nor running water and that water service had been disconnected on Sept. 3, an arrest warrant affidavit says.

They did not find any fluids in the house the children could drink, but did find empty 2-liter bottles of soda and empty juice boxes on the floor in various rooms, the affidavit said.

“The only food in the home was a few bags of dried beans and uncooked rice with no way to cook or prepare the beans or rice,” the affidavit says.

The temperature inside the house was 86 degrees, the affidavit said.

“The toilet was accessible, but there was no way to get rid of the waste and the bathtub did not appear to have any recent signs of use and had coffee beans in (it),” the affidavit said.

Autopsy results are still pending in the deaths of the two younger children.

The two older girls will remain in custody of the state until another hearing on Nov. 19.

A home study is underway to determine if a relative could take them in.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services confirmed that it’s conducting a joint investigation with Temple police.

The children were found dead after Salvation Army employees, who were working with the family, went to the home at around 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 30 to do a welfare check, got no response and then called police.

The two officers who answered the call discovered that “the safety bolts were locked from inside the house” and got no response when they knocked at both the front and rear doors, the affidavit says.

One officer looked into a bedroom window “and smelled the odor of decay,” the affidavit says.

The officers found another bedroom window whose glass “had been broken out from the inside,” and when they removed the screen and shade found “a very young child” who “appeared very frightened and was on the ground by an adult female who was on the floor.”

One officer entered the house through the window and moved the two young girls “to a safe distance” and then checked on the woman, identified as Haynes.

She “was conscious, would not speak and her pupils appeared dilated,” the affidavit says.

Officers found the two younger children dead.

The two girls, who were taken to McLane Children’s Hospital, were “wearing clothing that had the odor of decay and trash and….appeared hungry and thirsty.”

The two children “described living on ‘fruit snacks,’” the affidavit says.

The children appeared to have been dead for some time, police said.

Haynes was taken to Scott & White Medical Center.

She appeared to be in a catatonic state, an officer said earlier.