Woman charged with child abuse based on living conditions

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said he could smell the odor coming from a house on Hunting Green Drive from 70 feet away Thursday.

He heard reports from his investigators of the alleged conditions two children were living in at the residence and said he had to see for himself.

What he found shocked him, he said.

Law enforcement found two small children living in a house covered in animal feces and garbage.

"I am sickened just thinking about it," Brown said hours after his visit to the Deerfield area home. "The smell gets up in your nose and you can't forget it."

The 20-year-old woman living there, Rachel L. Ceaser, was charged Thursday by the Onslow County Sheriff's Department with two misdemeanor counts of child abuse for "allowing seven dogs to live in the same area as two children," according to warrants.

She was taken to jail Thursday afternoon and her two young children were taken by the Department of Social Services.

Seven dogs, a hamster and a lizard were seized by Onslow County Animal Control. The agency is considering pressing charges against Ceaser for the conditions in which the animals were living, said Animal Control Director Dino Einsig.

Courtney Kendzierski, who operates a local animal rescue group, alerted law enforcement to the situation after two foster puppies died in the home of heat exhaustion. She said Ceaser told her the utilities had been disconnected.

Kendzierski said she went to the Hunting Green home Thursday morning and was appalled by what she found.

"I saw feces, old and new feces," she said. "There was dried up blood squirted on the wall."

She said Ceaser's two small children were naked and playing in the dog feces.

Ceaser's husband is a Camp Lejeune Marine who just recently returned from a long tour in Iraq. He is not expected to be charged, Brown said.

Ceaser's bond was set at $4,000.

Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.