The children are in foster homes until CPS can determine whether any relatives are suitable to care for them. Investigators believe these children were abused and neglected and if they needed medical attention, they didn't get it.
Outside the home in Dayton, there are no toys or bikes. In fact, there were no signs of children that any passerby can see, but neighbors never saw any either.
"We had no clue there were that many children in that house at one time," said one neighbor with whom we spoke.
According to CPS, there were 11 children living there until almost four weeks ago. They ranged from ages 5 months to 11 years old. All are cousins and from seven different sets of parents. CPS took them into custody based on physical abuse, as well as physical and medical neglect.
When Dayton police went to the home January 24, neighbors say 10 adults were also living there. They say people often came and went, but children were almost never seen.
"They were never outside, and I've talked to most of our neighbors and none of our neighbors, to my knowledge, has ever seen them putting a child in a car seat going to the store, never seen them go to the doctor or anywhere; if they did, so they did so at night," the neighbor said.
The neighbor didn't want to be identified. Others only talked to us off camera. Many describe contentious interactions with those who live here. And there were many over the years.
The modest brick home on Ford Avenue has extra living accommodations, including two campers and three outbuildings in the back. This man wonders where all the children were hidden.
"It's frightening, it's frightening," he said.
Neighbors say the children's grandparents were the caregivers. No one has been criminally charged. The custody part of this case goes to court March 9.
