Couple charged after officers find children sleeping on mattresses with ‘multiple cockroaches running underneath’ them in Fairmont house

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — A woman was charged last week after officers found three children staying in a “filthy” house in Fairmont with cockroaches and no running water or food.

On Aug. 28, officers with the Fairmont Police Department received a call from CPS requesting assistance for a home check on Cedar Street because there were “cockroaches, no water, filthy house and random people in there using drugs,” according to a criminal complaint.

When officers arrived to speak with the guardians of the children who were identified as Crystal Trimble, 39; and Robert Trimble, 40, both of Fairmont, but another individual said he had been watching the children and that Crystal “has been at a friend’s house all day.”

While the man contacted Crystal and told her to return the house, officers also noted that three males were at the residence and left upon seeing law enforcement, according to the complaint.

After Crystal arrived, officers “entered the residence to observe the conditions of living and speak with the children,” during which time they noted “multiple cockroaches and other insects running across the ground and on the walls,” officers said.

Officers also noted there was a “sink overflowing with dirty dishes that appeared to have been there for quite some time” with “bugs crawling on those”; they also recorded in the criminal complaint that there were two young children sleeping on “two small mattresses in the middle of the floor in the living room.”

Officers “observed multiple cockroaches run from underneath the children’s mattresses” and noticed that one of the children had “three wounds on his legs” which “appeared to be infected,” the complaint said.

During that time, CPS workers spoke with the children, who said that they have to “use a whistle to wake someone up when people are sleeping if they need something,” and one of the children said that “she gets smacked in the mouth […] for discipline,” according to the complaint.

A third teenaged child told CPS that “he hasn’t showered since the first day of school, which was approximately one week ago” because the “water has been shut off,” and that “there is no food in the residence”; he also told officers about “a closet with a bed in it that random people will sleep in from time to time,” officers said.

Officers then spoke with Robert at the residence, who said that the children have to go to another house to shower, and that “they have had cockroaches and bugs inside their residence for approximately a month,” according to the complaint.

Robert also told officers that “the people that come over are friends and they just hang out,” but “denied and type of drug use” and “stated he didn’t know who the people were at [the] house when [officers] arrived,” officers said.

In that same conversation, Robert said that “no one sleeps in the closet” where officers had located the “mattress and blanket on the floor,” according to the complaint.

Robert also told officers that the child with the leg wounds has not been taken to a doctor “because he doesn’t have a ride,” officers said.

CPS spoke with Crystal, who stated that “she hasn’t been living at the residence for approximately 2 weeks,” and claimed “she had no idea there wasn’t any running water at the residence,” according to the complaint, but she also said that “she’s over to the house every day.”

She also said she “had no idea who the people are” that the other guardian “are letting watch over her children.”

Crystal and Robert have been charged with three counts of gross child neglect. Crystal is being held in North Central Regional Jail on $30,000 bond, and Robert is being held on $25,000 bond.

Editor’s note: Robert Trimble was not named in the original posting of this article due to him not being charged at the time it was written. The article has been updated to include his name and charges within the narrative.

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