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RACINE, Wis. — A mother and her husband are facing several felony charges after prosecutors say Racine officials found three children living in a "vile" hoarding home with dead dogs.
Thirty-nine-year-old Steven Burdo and Sandra Lemke, 38, face 40 charges including chronic child neglect and animal mistreatment.
According to a criminal complaint, the Racine County Human Services Department (HSD) received a report on July 19 on concerns about the condition of the home of a 10-year-old, 8-year-old, and 5-year-old on Lorraine Avenue in Racine.
Upon arrival, the mother of all three children, Lemke, advised the HSD worker she had "let the home go" due to being overwhelmed with the condition and her children. Lemke and the children live in the home with her husband, Burdo. Burdo is the alleged father of the 5-year-old.
At first, the complaint says Lemke would not let police or the worker into the home, claiming the family dog was "vicious and would bite." She eventually caged the dog in the backyard and let public officials inside.
The complaint says immediately, the home's smell of urine and feces was "pungent and almost suffocating." There was no electricity or water in the home, "creating a warm, damp, and sickly environment."
The complaint details that the worker "climbed through the layers of soiled and stiff clothing, rotten food, garbage, and disheveled furniture to further enter the home."
There were numerous buckets "filed to the brim" with human feces and urine. A broken toilet was in the middle of the hallway and was filled with feces. Lemke told authorities the whole family slept in the living room on the couch and chairs, which were covered in cigarettes, ash, moldy food, bugs, and grime, the complaint says. The children shared moldy pillows and ragged blankets.
Two dead dogs were discovered in a child's bedroom, which prompted the response of a humane officer. The complaint says the dead dogs, located just 30 feet from where the children slept, were going through the decay process.
Fifteen live cats and kittens and one live dog were discovered and removed from the home. Some of the kittens were found in bins covered with feces. The complaint says the animals were treated for various ailments at the Wisconsin Humane Society, including fleas, dermatitis, ear mites, loss of fur, open sores, upper respiratory infections, tapeworms, and one cat had a fractured tooth.
The home's walls were "stained with an unknown yellow substance" and "layers of cobwebs" were on every ceiling in the home. There were also swarms of flies and other bugs flying around. A mattress was found completely brown, which was believed to be feces. The home was condemned by the Racine Health Department and deemed unfit for human habitation.
According to the complaint, the Racine County Human Services Department had a total of nine reports received between September 2014 and July 2023 for dirty and unsanitary conditions. The complaint notes Lemke has another 18-year-old child who does not live with the family.
Cash bond was set at $20,000 for both Lemke and Burdo on Friday. They return to court for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 13.
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