Two young children lived in a North Philly home covered in feces and trash. Now, their mother is going to prison.
Federal and state authorities have described the case as among the most disturbing child endangerment investigations they have encountered.
When FBI agents arrived at a North Philadelphia home in July to execute a search warrant in an investigation into an alleged terrorist threat against the White House, they could not open the front door of the brick duplex.
They gained entry only after a hazmat crew arrived and devised a way inside. The crew found feces coating the floors, and piles of trash and debris so deep that the agents could not tell whether a bed or crib lay buried beneath them — in a home where two young children lived with their parents.
Authorities arrested the parents, Thomas Bach and Megan Bach, and charged them with child endangerment, conspiracy, and nearly 40 counts of animal neglect involving dozens of cats and a dog discovered in the home. And on Friday, Megan Bach, 44, was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in prison for subjecting her children to the home’s squalor.
Bach’s sentencing Fridaybrought renewed attention to the case and offered a fuller account of what investigators encountered as they worked their way through the debris in the duplex, facing conditions so extreme that federal and state authorities have described the case as among the most disturbing child endangerment investigations they have encountered.
The state of the home in the 7100 block of Whitaker Avenue was so severe that the hazmat crew tasked with entering it struggled to work. The pungent odor of feces, urine, and dirt penetrated workers’ protective suits, forcing them to remove the doors and windows to ventilate the property before proceeding, Assistant District Attorney Maggie McDermott said on Friday.
Neither the kitchen, which lacked a working refrigerator, nor the bathroom was usable, she said. A toilet stood in the hallway, disconnected from plumbing.
The children, ages 9 months and 5 years, were wearing soiled clothing, McDermott said, and the 5-year-old had bruised shins. Medical professionals determined that both children were otherwise healthy. They are now living with their godparents, she said.
During forensic interviews, the older child described the home as coated in brown mud that had frozen on the floor, McDermott said, unable to understand that the hardened dirt was actually feces. The family slept together in a single room, the child told interviewers, and when they were given baths, it was with cold water.
The account of the children’s living conditions was “truly heartbreaking,” McDermott told the judge.
Workers from the Pennsylvania SPCA, which was called to remove the animals from the property, initially found 38 cats and one dog. Over the following week, they rescued 22 more cats, the nonprofit’s spokesperson, Gillian Kocher, said. And by Aug. 13, the total number of cats removed from the home had grown to 122, she said.
The staff visited daily to search for animals and bring food and water until Aug. 15, when they had gone two consecutive days without finding another cat at the boarded-up property, Kocher said. Each time they returned to the home, workers had to remove the boards and secure the property again when they left.
Kocher called the effort “a great deal of work and not ideal,“ but necessary “due to the condition inside the home.”
The rescued cats suffered from a range of medical problems, including malnutrition, ear infections, and skin conditions, Kocher said. Some are awaiting adoption, she said, but many require additional time and attention before they can be placed in homes because they were not accustomed to regular human interaction, Kocher said. None have been euthanized, she said.
Bach pleaded guilty in August to two counts of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy in a deal with prosecutors that resulted in the dismissal of the animal neglect and other charges.
Her husband and the children’s father, Thomas Bach, 43, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy, as well as possessing brass knuckles, an offensive weapon. Dozens of animal neglect charges against him were also dismissed. He is awaiting sentencing.
On Friday, Megan Bach’s attorney, John Marroletti, offered a portrait of a woman whose life had deteriorated amid years of grief and mental health struggles. She had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the deaths of three family members over the past 13 years, including both of her parents, he told the judge on Friday.
Those losses, Marroletti said, contributed to a decline from which Bach could not recover and she “sunk into something” she was no longer able to manage.
Although he acknowledged that the condition of the home “was unacceptable,” Marroletti also said that Bach “was doing the best she could.”
Authorities have not disclosed whether investigators found evidence related to the alleged threat against the White House inside the home. An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for information Friday. Thomas Bach has not been charged with any federal crimes, court records show.
Bach declined to address the court Friday. She wept quietly as Common Pleas Court Judge Donna Woelpper issued her sentence, which also includes three years of probation. Woelpper said Bach will not be permitted to own animals after she serves her prison sentence.
Bach had previously been released from jail after posting bond. In August, however, she asked to be taken back into custody because she had nowhere to live, McDermott and Marroletti said.
