MIAMI (WSVN) -- A couple is facing more than 800 counts of child neglect after they allegedly forced their child to live outside their home for years.
Shireen and Philip Mathieu appeared in bond court to face more than 863 counts of child neglect, Friday morning. A judge ordered the couple held on a bond in excess of $430,000.
According to City of Miami Police, the parents forced their 16-year-old daughter to sleep with them in a family car while they kept a neat home inside their duplex, which was also stuffed with garbage.
The Department of Children and Family has said they had visited the duplex, at 6329 and 6327 NW First Ct., on at least one occasion, investigating this family. "The little girl tells us that the nice house, where the furniture was that was the DCF house," explained Miami Police Commander Delrish Moss, "that was the house that was kept just in case DCF or investigators came looking."
Police said they were first notified about this girl's situation because she had been staying at a facility that assists troubled youth. Police also said she has run away in the past but never called police until now.
Police said the couple's daughter told them she spent half her life, from the ages of 8 to 16, sleeping and even going to the bathroom outside the home her parents owned. The parents have denied these accusations.
Police said the couple allowed garbage to pile up inside their home while they cleaned only a small section of it. "The entire family was not allowed to go into the house," said Moss. "The only thing that would happen during the day is mother would go into the clean part of the house and continually clean while piling all the garbage and filth into the other part."
Moss said the reason why the family would not sleep inside still remains a mystery. "Those are things we're still trying to figure out," he said. "I mean, detectives asked questions for hours, and they still have more questions to ask. There really is no good explanation for any of this."
Moss offered a view of the vehicle the family slept in for years. "What we're seeing inside is a makeshift bed, radio. It looks like they were trying to make all the comforts home, but certainly not a comfortable situation for a little girl and her mother and father to sleep in."
He also showed where the family "used the bathroom" outside the home. "Behind the car, the evidence of using the bathroom in plastic bags," Moss said.
Then, to clean-up, the child could only do that outdoors as well, according to Moss. "She said, she was never allowed to go inside the house. She had to shower with a water hose, she was given soap, just probably one of the more bizarre stories in my 26 years as a law enforcement officer."
"I think it's sad," said an unidentified neighbor. "It's like child abuse."
Shireen and Philip Mathieu appeared in bond court to face more than 863 counts of child neglect, Friday morning. A judge ordered the couple held on a bond in excess of $430,000.
According to City of Miami Police, the parents forced their 16-year-old daughter to sleep with them in a family car while they kept a neat home inside their duplex, which was also stuffed with garbage.
The Department of Children and Family has said they had visited the duplex, at 6329 and 6327 NW First Ct., on at least one occasion, investigating this family. "The little girl tells us that the nice house, where the furniture was that was the DCF house," explained Miami Police Commander Delrish Moss, "that was the house that was kept just in case DCF or investigators came looking."
Police said they were first notified about this girl's situation because she had been staying at a facility that assists troubled youth. Police also said she has run away in the past but never called police until now.
Police said the couple's daughter told them she spent half her life, from the ages of 8 to 16, sleeping and even going to the bathroom outside the home her parents owned. The parents have denied these accusations.
Police said the couple allowed garbage to pile up inside their home while they cleaned only a small section of it. "The entire family was not allowed to go into the house," said Moss. "The only thing that would happen during the day is mother would go into the clean part of the house and continually clean while piling all the garbage and filth into the other part."
Moss said the reason why the family would not sleep inside still remains a mystery. "Those are things we're still trying to figure out," he said. "I mean, detectives asked questions for hours, and they still have more questions to ask. There really is no good explanation for any of this."
Moss offered a view of the vehicle the family slept in for years. "What we're seeing inside is a makeshift bed, radio. It looks like they were trying to make all the comforts home, but certainly not a comfortable situation for a little girl and her mother and father to sleep in."
He also showed where the family "used the bathroom" outside the home. "Behind the car, the evidence of using the bathroom in plastic bags," Moss said.
Then, to clean-up, the child could only do that outdoors as well, according to Moss. "She said, she was never allowed to go inside the house. She had to shower with a water hose, she was given soap, just probably one of the more bizarre stories in my 26 years as a law enforcement officer."
"I think it's sad," said an unidentified neighbor. "It's like child abuse."
