SAN ANTONIO – Danielle and Paul Kinsey are in custody, each facing four counts of endangering four children with horrendous living conditions at an apartment on the Northeast Side, according to the Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
Deputies were called to the 6700 block of Montgomery Drive for a report of a foul odor. They arrived expecting to find a body in the apartment, Salazar said.
Instead, the responding deputies found lots of trash bags filled with old food, insects, rats and feces throughout the apartment, according to the sheriff.
Salazar said the two adult residents taken into custody were the 37-year-old mother of the four children and the 33-year-old father of the two youngest children.
The sheriff said the oldest child, believed to be 13, was not home when the deputies arrived. But the 8-year-old child who was home told deputies she frequently misses school due to headaches.
Salazar said the children, one as young as 2 years old, didn’t appear malnourished. However, he said the living conditions put the children’s health in danger.
The mother of the children works for a hospital as an assistant of some sort, Salazar said.
“She should certainly know better,” he said during a news conference.
Neighbors say the couple kept to themselves and were rarely seen outside their unit. However, the children were often heard playing in the middle of the night.
The sheriff said investigators told him this one of the worst child endangerment scenes they have ever seen, with rats crawling over their feet while they were there walking through the apartment.
“There’s no reason to stockpile trash. There’s regular dumpster service,” Salazar said.
The sheriff said Child Protective Services is creating a plan for the children to live with relatives for the time being.
KSAT will update you when more information becomes available.
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