19 Kids Left Home Alone For a Week, Neighbor Says Police Knew and Didn’t Act

As we reported earlier, the mother of “at least some of” a group of 19 children found in a “sweltering” Kentucky home, unattended and without food for a week, is under arrest.

The details of the case are somewhat under wraps, but what we do know is that 19 kids were found in the home in Bowling Green, a home authorities have described as “filthy,” and in addition to insufficient food, the residence also had no air conditioning.

32-year-old Jackie Farah has been arrested in the wake of the discovery, but police also say that the “blended” family was not comprised solely of her own biological children — and at 32, it is reasonable to suspect several were not hers. Police are said to be looking for Irving Smith, who goes by the name “Joe,” and say he is the father of the children.

In the meantime, Farah has been charged with 4 counts of criminal abuse and five counts of wanton endangerment. Warren County Sheriff’s Detective Tim Robinson said that Farah told a neighbor she had a family emergency and needed to go to Michigan last week, requesting the neighbor check in on the children from time to time — and that the parents of the kids reported that “car problems” kept them away for so long.

However, that neighbor, Annie Adams, says that she doesn’t believe Farah was genuinely unable to return, and further, says that she has been reporting the situation for far longer. Adams says that a few weeks back, ten kids were alone in the home, and police did not intervene. She explains:

“I do not believe that story. I don’t believe that story because of things that have happened in the past. And the kind of people they are, I just don’t believe that.”

Adams continues:

“So, I call about these kids and they come out here and they don’t do anything. So what happens? You’re not going to do anything until one of them gets severely hurt or killed. I just think it’s ridiculous. As a parent, it’s ridiculous.”

In addition to the 19 kids, police found several pets in the home, all presumably also uncared for.