Toddlers forced to eat own feces if they pooped their diapers, Texas sheriff says

A Texas sheriff says children removed from their grandmother’s custody were forced to eat their own feces and starved for a week at a time, media outlets report.

Samantha Foster, 41, was charged with three felony counts of injury to a child on Thursday in Wilson County after her grandchildren were taken to a hospital in critical condition, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Sheriff Joe Tackitt said a 12-year-old family member texted police about the conditions at the home, the news outlet reported. When sheriff’s investigators arrived, the home was overrun with garbage, leftover food and excrement, and the three children — a 1-year-old girl and 2-year-old and 4-year-old boys — were malnourished and underdeveloped, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

“The babies just weren’t taken care of at all,” Tackitt told the news outlet.

Investigators learned that a man no longer living at the home forced the children to eat their own feces if they pooped in their diapers, according to an affidavit for removal obtained by KSAT.

“It was heartbreaking and it was definitely one of the worst cases we’ve heard about,” Sondra Ajasin, CEO of TruLight127 Ministries, a nonprofit foster organization, told KSAT.

Foster took custody of the children about a year ago, WOAI reported. Dueis Jahns, who is Foster’s great uncle, told the news outlet that he had no idea the children were in danger and doesn’t condone what happened.

Jahns said Foster “really, really wanted her grandbabies” when she took custody, the news outlet reported.

“Samantha is not a devil,” Jahns told WOAI, later saying, “I hope that the kids are placed in a home.”