- October 30, 2024
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By: Shannon Martin
Public Affairs Officer, Flagler County Sheriff’s Office
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Espanola Road in Bunnell on Friday, Feb. 28, for a welfare check requested by Flagler County School officials, who stated there were reports of sewage backing up into the home.
The FCSO responded to the residence and a 12-year-old girl answered the door. The girl got her mother, Tiffany Berry, 31, who stepped out to speak with deputies. Berry told deputies that she and Nicholas Carter, 34, have lived inside the home with their five children ranging in ages from 3 months to 12 years of age.
Berry invited deputies inside the home and they immediately smelled a putrid odor resembling human waste.
Berry stated the odor was from the septic tank that has been collapsed since 2017 or 2018. Berry further stated that the sewage was no longer hooked to the malfunctioning septic and was being discharged directly onto the ground beneath the house from the only bathroom.
The ceiling inside the home was missing, wet and rotting in most areas. In the kitchen, deputies observed the floor was giving way to the bare ground below where the sewage was being discharged. The kitchen walls were missing in some areas, exposing bare wood covered in mold and rot, allowing sunlight through.
In the bathroom, deputies discovered pieces of the ceiling and roof were also missing exposing more wet, rotting wood covered in mold. The floor in the bathroom was also very decayed and covered in mold around the tub. The tub had settled beneath the flooring of the house and was gaping in some areas allowing the smell of the waste below to be inhaled.
In the bedrooms, deputies noticed the ceiling was rotting and falling off directly above the children’s bunk beds. All of the bedrooms inside the home were full of a moldy odor and covered in general filth. While inside the home, deputies observed multiple live and dead cockroaches scattered along the floor as well as crawling along the TV and furniture in the room.
Berry told deputies she and Carter were very well aware of the conditions of the house and the adverse health effects it was having on all five of the children. She even stated multiple times the kids have stepped in the holes in the floor. Berry told deputies that she has reached out for assistance but no one would help her and that the Department of Children and Families had just told her to move. Berry claims to have notified the property owner of the condition of the home but that the lease had expired and the landlord will not make repairs. Berry said that she and Carter have plans to make repair to the home when they get their tax refund.
During the investigation, it was discovered that the oldest child has an untreated mental health condition and was often left home unattended and instructed by Berry and Carter to look after her four siblings while the parents went to work and to hide if anyone knocked on the door. The juvenile complained of being kept up all night looking after her siblings and was unable to call for help in an emergency due to there being no working phone to make calls.
The living conditions have been an ongoing problem since May 2016 per school records, when the oldest child arrived at school covered in bug bites and smelling of urine. Since that time, Berry and Carter have been contacted by multiple organizations who have offered assistance that they have either turned down or never followed up on.
“I am so happy that we were able to get these kids out of this house before someone was injured or became seriously ill as a result of the deplorable conditions inside the home,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Between the mold, the unstable foundation, and the fact that these kids were being left unsupervised, this situation could have had a tragic ending. These two ‘parents’ have been given every opportunity to make improvements to not just their kids’ lives but their own lives that they have completely ignored. Hopefully, DCF and other agencies will help these parents and children get the help they need. It is unfortunate these conditions and the parent’s lack of actions deteriorated to a criminal case. Just because you may be poor you must still take care of your children. Sadly, I noticed the large flat screen TV in the room. Parenting is about making the right choices for your family.”
FCSO contacted DCF who arrived and took custody of all five children. Based off the lack of shelter provided for the children, lack of mental health care provided, environmental hazards and lack of supervision given to the children, Berry and Carter were placed under
arrest. They were charged with child neglect without great bodily harm and transported to the Flagler County Jail.
