John Jefferson
Left: Amanda Reynolds (Cass County Sheriff’s Office). Right: David Reynolds (Cass County Sheriff’s Office).
A husband and wife who run a nutrition store in southeast Nebraska were arrested for the filthy conditions of their own home, according to police in the Cornhusker State. The squalor was allegedly so extreme that the couple’s children lived among dead animals.
David Reynolds and Amanda Reynolds, both 42, stand accused of four counts of animal cruelty causing injury or death and three counts of child abuse without injury, according to Cass County law enforcement.
The allegations are said to concern three children and four rabbits.
On July 26, Plattsmouth Police acted on information from the state’s child welfare agency that the children had to eat in their bathroom because it was the only clean place in their house, according to court documents obtained by Omaha-based NBC affiliate WOWT.
The first responding officer quickly assessed an unsanitary situation at the Reynolds residence — citing the widespread presence of animal feces inside and some 40 chickens on the property, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Lincoln-based CBS affiliate KOLN.
And, in what police believe was an inauspicious start to the visit, the husband was allegedly found outside sleeping in his car. Authorities surmise he was trying to avoid the conditions inside the house. The defendant said he was just “waiting” there.
When asked where the children were, David Reynolds allegedly said he assumed they were sleeping inside. He also confirmed that his wife was at work. And then he led police on a grand tour.
Inside, the officer immediately took stock of “an odor of large amounts of feces and urine,” the affidavit reportedly says. Zeroing in on the details of the olfactory onslaught, the officer reported seeing feces smeared on floors, ample pieces of clothing and trash strewn about, and several objects on the floor that had been urinated on.
The officer also noticed multiple dogs and cats throughout the home. When the father went to wake up his children, the officer remarked on the continued presence of waste and garbage on the floors.
Some apparent attempts to deal with flies had been made. The officer said he saw fly paper hanging from the ceiling — but alleged that each piece of the adhesive was “completely covered with dead insects.”
Inside one of the children’s allegedly cluttered and feces-littered rooms, the officer said a mattress had a relatively small section that was clearly parceled out for sleeping, according to an affidavit obtained by the Missouri Valley Times News. The rest of the mattress was used as a trash receptacle, the officer wrote — adding that the garbage on the bed was something of a trash foothill, spilling onto the floor into an even larger pile that “rose from floor to nearly the ceiling.”
In that same child’s bedroom, a hutch for two rabbits, allegedly overflowing with feces and urine, the officer allegedly observed.
After backup arrived, police conducted inspections of the other rooms in the house, and allegedly turned up similar conditions.
Over the next two days, officers returned, once to find the front of the house in better shape and Amanda Reynolds cleaning up.
The mother allegedly asked one of the officers if it would be okay to enlist her children in the sanitation effort. The officer allegedly rebuked the woman — saying she and her husband were responsible for the filth and not to have the children clean the house.
On the third day, police allegedly discovered an expansive rabbit pen in the basement. One of the officers sensed trouble downstairs immediately, writing in the affidavit that an ammonia-like smell “caused my eyes to burn” immediately upon opening the cellar door.
In the rabbit pen, which was said to be outfitted with bedding and wire cages throughout an entire room, four of the tiny creatures were dead. Police say there was no food or water in sight. When confronted with the news, the couple allegedly said they had no idea rabbits were even being kept in the basement, according to the affidavit.
The dead rabbits — and the concomitant alleged pleas of ignorance — were seemingly the final straw for law enforcement.
Formal charges were filed against David Reynolds on Aug. 27; Amanda Reynolds was charged on Aug. 29. The defendants were arrested on Sunday and made bail on Tuesday, jail records show.
The couple owns a nutrition business, according to the Times News. In a Facebook post, the business — which sells various health food supplements, smoothies, infused teas, and protein products — said they would be closed until Sept. 7 due to “due to some family circumstances” but hoped they would be able to re-open by Sept. 9.
The defendants are slated to appear in court for a hearing on Oct. 15.
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