Oakland Co. Mom Took In $29K In Aid For Kids She Abandoned In Garbage-Filled Home: Cops

PONTIAC, MI — A mother who abandoned her kids inside a garbage-filled home years ago is now facing even more charges, according to officials.

Kelli Marie Bryant, 34, is now charged with three counts of welfare fraud after officials said a review showed she fraudulently received more than $29,000 in aid from Michigan.

Bryant was already facing three counts of child abuse. She was placed in the Oakland County Jail with a bond initially set at $250 million, but a judge later reduced it to $50,000. Her next court date is scheduled for April 15.

If convicted on the child abuse charge, she faces up to life in prison, and up to four years for each welfare fraud charge.

"The defendant appears to have effectively abandoned her children while collecting their public assistance," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement. "This crime is, first and foremost, a theft from Kelli Bryant’s children. These resources were intended to ensure they had the basic necessities denied to them. The children deserved better."

Prosecutors said Bryant lived in a home in the 600 block of Lydia Lane in Pontiac with her four kids before leaving sometime during the summer of 2020. She left three of them (a 15-year-old boy and 12- and 13-year-old girls) at the home, while a fourth child went to live with their father, prosecutors said.

The home's landlord had contacted the sheriff’s office because the rent had not been paid since October, and he had not spoken to Bryant since December and was concerned something may have happened, officials said.

Last month, officers found the children living inside the home in "absolute squalor" with garbage piled as high as 4 feet in some rooms, prosecutors said.

The children were taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and placed in the custody of a relative by Child Protective Services, prosecutors said.

After the arrest of their mother, the children were taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and placed in the custody of a relative by Child Protective Services, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the children appear to be doing OK, despite what they experienced.

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