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Children removed from filthy, roach-infested trailer in Rylie area of Dallas

09:09 AM CDT on Saturday, April 18, 2009

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
jtrahan@dallasnews.com

A couple were arrested early Friday after Dallas police discovered them living with their 6-month-old girl and three other children in a filthy Rylie-area trailer crawling with roaches and strewn with rotting food and beer cans.

Joshua Benz and Rachel Crowell, both 27, were arrested at a trailer park in the 13200 block of Fish Road, near Interstate 20 and Belt Line Road. Benz was booked on a charge of evading arrest and was still in custody Friday evening at the Dallas County Jail. Crowell was released after being arrested on two misdemeanor tickets.

The baby and three other children, ages 2, 7 and 12, were released to their grandmother, authorities said.

About 2:30 a.m., Dallas police officers investigating reports of people siphoning gas from vehicles at the trailer park saw Benz and another man dressed in dark clothes standing next to a parked vehicle. Officers arrested the other man, 20-year-old Brandon Schoonover, who was being held on suspicion of evading arrest and marijuana possession, jail officials said.

Benz ran inside the trailer he shares with Crowell, according to a police report. When officers knocked on the door, she answered, but was drunk and barely able to stand, the report said. Police found Benz hiding under a children's mattress.

While inside, officers saw that the floor "was covered in dirt, food, beer cans and various tools," the police report says. The smell of rotting food in the kitchen was overpowering, they said.

There was no food in the refrigerator, but it was "stocked full of alcohol."

Officers also found exposed electrical wires within reach of the children. The walls were discolored and pocked with fist-sized holes. The bathrooms were "covered in fecal matter." One toilet was backed up and full of feces, police said.

The baby was asleep on a urine-soaked couch with an open beer can nearby, the report said. Officers also saw roaches "crawling on the children as they slept."

Child Protective Services is investigating. Authorities could file additional charges.

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