PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — A father himself, Jamarr Johnson, told us that he felt the need to share that he heard the three kids abandoned in squalor in a Pontiac home.
He said that for about six months he has lived two doors down from the home, and about two or three times, the kids yelled out their window to him.
"They would say, 'Hey, nice car!' and I might wave back to them, but that's it," said Johnson. "There’s no way that I could have known that they were in a terrible situation."
He said he didn't know that the room the children were calling from was stacked four feet high with mold, feces, and trash. He said that he never saw them outside, but he saw their mother, 34-year-old Kelli Marie Bryant.
PREVIOUS REPORT: Mom in Pontiac abandonment case gets $250M bond on child abuse charges
"She would be outside for hours and hours with a friend," said Johnson.
He shared that Bryant was always in a car with a friend, he never saw her go inside, and wonders who that friend was?
Did they know who Bryant was hiding?
During Bryant's arraignment Thursday, the judge said, "She’s from here, she’s from there, we don’t know where she resides."
So many have indeed been wondering where Bryant herself lived while her children sat in isolation.
Court documents show two addresses.
At one of them, I talked to a woman who confirmed that Bryant was living there the past few months.
The house is about six minutes away from where Bryant's children were.
The woman inside the home told us that Bryant always said that her kids were with her dad and that Bryant actually played with other peoples' kids.
The three children, ages 15, 13, and 12, are currently staying with their maternal grandpa.
Over the phone, their paternal grandpa, Samuel White, said that he and the kids' father have been trying to see the kids for years.
He said, "It just hurts because it’s not the fact that she had to take them to that. Why would she do that if that wasn’t the situation?"
White said that he personally asked Bryant to bring the kids around, but the answer was always no.
Begging a final, and perhaps the biggest question: why would she do this?
"It’s sickening because we wasn’t running from the situation, we always asked about them," said White.
When asked how the children are doing now, he said, "They doin' alright, but that’s a lot of scars there, a lot of scars."
Bryant will be back in court on March 4th for a probable cause conference.
