Three children removed from 'filthy disaster'

Staff Reports

An Indian Hills couple was arrested on drug and child endangerment charges Monday, accused of raising three children in conditions a Douglas County sheriff’s investigator called a “filthy disaster.”

Walter Franklin Stout, 27, and Billie Dawn Self, 28, were arrested after state authorities made a welfare check on their residence in the 3500 block of Vista Grande.

According to the investigator’s report, the residence reeked of “an unbearable stench.”

The home was strewn with rotten food, dirty dishes and clothing, broken computer parts, tools and infested with insects.

The report said every floor, furniture and counter surface was covered and it appeared the apartment hadn’t been cleaned for months.

A 9-year-old girl told deputies she did most of the cooking, but her mother occasionally made dinner. She said they had bread for breakfast and nothing for lunch. She told the deputy she couldn’t remember what she had for dinner the night before.

The other children are ages 6 and 2. All three were removed from the home to be placed with a relative.

Stout and Self were taken to Douglas County Jail, charged with child endangerment, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The bedrooms and bathrooms were filthy and the children had no sheets on their beds. According to reports, the 2-year-old’s bedroom was so littered, the deputy couldn’t walk to the child’s crib.

Stout said that he and Self were unemployed and living in subsidized housing and on Self’s child support. He said they fought about upkeep of the apartment and neither one would clean.

Deputies reportedly found marijuana, methamphetamine and paraphernalia in the master bedroom.

Self tested positive for marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and opiates. She reportedly told deputies she was trying to get “on a runner” so she could stay up and clean the house. She said she never smoked drugs around her children.

Stout and Self are to appear in East Fork Justice Court on Aug. 20.