Squatting couple indicted after children found locked in a room, eating a mattress in Mitchel Houses

A couple was indicted after the woman’s daughters were discovered locked in a room in inhumane conditions.

Photo courtesy Getty Images

A Bronx woman and her boyfriend were indicted by a grand jury for neglecting two young girls who were found by police eating bits of a foam mattress, locked in a filthy room with signs of physical abuse, according to the Bronx district attorney.

They were both arraigned Monday before Bronx Supreme Court, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office, after being arrested on May 27, according to the NYC Department of Correction (DOC).

Stephanie Grabowski, a 40-year-old Bronxite and her boyfriend Mark Russell, 45, were squatting in an apartment at the New York City Housing Authority’s Mitchel Houses at 300 E. 138th St., according to the DA’s office.

NYPD officers went to vacate the apartment on May 3 because it was a known home to squatters. Once they arrived, officers discovered Grabowski’s two daughters inside a filthy bedroom lined with feces, dirty diapers and garbage, according to the DA’s office.

One of Gabrowski’s daughters just turned five last week and the other will turn four next month, according to the indictment.

The officers noticed the bedroom door knob tied together with a nearby closet door with a “ropelike cord,” before kicking in the doors and finding the two girls. The children were bruised and naked on a dirty “sponge mattress” on the floor, according to Clark’s office.

One officer saw the children eating pieces of the mattress, according to Clark’s office.

Additionally, there was urine and feces around the apartment and there did not appear to be sufficient food, amenities, clothing or clean diapers, according to Clark’s office.

“The defendants allegedly kept these little girls in a house of horrors,” Clark said. “They illegally occupied an apartment and left the children alone without food or clothing. Fortunately, police rescued the…