PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he's never seen anything like what deputies uncovered at a Pontiac home on Friday.

Bouchard said three children, a 15-year-old boy and two girls, 13 and 12, are both now living with a relative after the horrific discovery on Friday afternoon.

"Throughout my extensive career in this field, I have never encountered a scenario as dire and prolonged as this one, involving abandonment, neglect, and abuse of the highest order," Bouchard said.

WARNING: The details of this story are horrific. Proceed at your own risk.

What we know:

Bouchard said deputies were called for a welfare check at a home on Lydia Lane. The landlord called after he said he had not heard from the mother since December and that rent was last paid in October.

He told officers that he was concerned something had happened.

Deputies arrived and found the home full of garbage - piled as high as four feet in some rooms. The rooms were also covered in mold and human waste. The toilet was overflowing, and the bathtub was full of feces.

The home was being lived in by the three children, alone.

The boy, the oldest of the siblings, said they lived in the home with their mother but that she abandoned them in either 2020 or 2021 - at least four years ago - when the children would have been just 11, 9, and 8.

The children survived on food that was dropped off on the front porch each week by either their mother or a stranger.

But they had no access to toilet paper or personal hygiene items. The sheriff said they were unfamiliar with personal hygiene and didn't even know how to flush a toilet.

They had also not attended school since she left them and instead passed time by watching TV or playing games. The sheriff said the girls had not been outside in several years.

The boy left on a mattress on the floor but the two girls slept on pizza boxes.

"This situation would be deemed deplorable and intolerable for an animal, and it is utterly unacceptable for three children. They have been deprived of any interaction with their mother and have not received an education for years. The far-reaching consequences of this abuse must be acknowledged. We look forward to presenting this case to the prosecutor and ensuring that this mother faces the consequences of her actions," Bouchard said.

According to deputies, neighbors were unaware that children lived in the home and had never seen them. They said they had seen their mother at the home each month.

The kids were all wearing soiled clothing with matted hair and toenails so long that it was difficult to walk.

Their 34-year-old mother was found at a different location and arrested. She told deputies that the kids' father was not involved in their lives.

What we don't know:

The sheriff did not say why the mother abandoned the children or what she was doing when she wasn't at the home.

Her name was not released to protect the identity of the three children.