Mom charged after son dies at 'deplorable' home overrun with animals

Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune: (click for entire article)

The scene was shocking enough when police answered a call at the small brick bungalow in Berwyn.

A 14-year-old boy, severely mentally disabled, wearing only a T-shirt, lying in the backyard and not breathing.

As he was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said they made a gruesome discovery inside. Four children -- ages 12 to 18 -- who had never been to school, living with more than 200 animals in a home covered by feces and infested with spiders and hundreds of hissing cockroaches that measured four to five inches.