FamilyLoves - I don't disagree with you.

My point was that the answer to "how could this happen" is obvious.

I remember my childhood neighborhood where everyone looked out for everyone else.

Sadly, that's not the case anymore. Everyone is so preoccupied with their own lives and problems that they don't pay any attention to others.

If a neighbor seems weird, most people will just try to avoid them. Their kids could have been taken by social workers for all the neighbors know. At what point to people decide to butt in to other people's lives?

With our "sue at the drop of a hat" society, people are just plain afraid to risk getting involved.

BIRTHCONTROL!BIRTHCONTROL!BIRTHCONTROL! I know my neighbors, I know their kids, I know their dogs, and they know me. this is a wake up call to get involed in your comunity. If you dont, these types of dispicable things happen. this woman is obviously psycotic, but the girls were most likely not. How does one live in a house with 4 dead children of their own with out being psyco! God bless those girls! may they find peace. and I hope that all wake up and get involved, know your neighbors, live in and love your comunity. we all walk around wondering whats wrong with our comunity/people/government bla bla bla - GET INVOLVED, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, DONT EXPECT SOME ONE ELSE TO PICK UP THE TRASH - WE ALL NEED TO DO IT. Every one FAILED misserably in this situation - EVERY ONE FAILED!

She was 33, so 15 or so when pregnant. Not that any of that matters. Why blame anyone? Is it necessary to assign blame all the time? Can't we just be sad, angry, frustrated, sickened, or disheartened because it is what it is? There is no point in blame, except to prosecute the mother.

She was 33, so 15 or so when pregnant. Not that any of that matters. Why blame anyone? Is it necessary to assign blame all the time? Can't we just be sad, angry, frustrated, sickened, or disheartened because it is what it is? There is no point in blame, except to prosecute the mother.

they are now reportng she is 33. She is looser.

You know this is a terrible thing that I think this could have been prevented. You mean to tell me that no one, not mother, father, sister, brother , aunt, uncle nobody knew this child was crazy and unfit care for these children, it had to be someone that knew. And for OldWVGuy to say why is everyone pointing fingers, they should whether you realize it or not we all play and should play a part of our neighborhood, remember when growing up, if you did something wrong the neighbor would get you and by the time you got home she had already called your mother so you're in trouble again. It's the same thing, looking out. So when the school didn't see the children (red flag) when the other family members didn't see the children (red flag) when the neighbor smelt something A LONG TIME AGO (red flag) ISN'T THAT SOMETHING NOW EVERYBODY WANTS TO MINE THIER BUSSINESS AT THE EXPENSE OF CHILDREN

The last time I checked, 37 minus 17 equals 20, which makes her age of majority. We should not be so quick to judge this woman and whether or not she was sane. These poor children lived very short lives and it appears that their lives were insignificant. Everyone should feel horrible when something like this occurs because it is our society who let these children down. Take something from this tragedy and if nothing else, be more aware of your environment and those who you live around. Have some compassion for your fellow neighbor.

Time for the death penalty .. past time.. but it won't happen.. sad indeed that a woman can kill four of her offspring and get a slap on the wrist. Yes.. DC is a zoo..

Insanity defense. Just watch.

Whoever impregnated this killer at the age of 12 should have been tossed into jail and the victim put in foster care since there was OBVIOUSLY no proper parenting going on. Just more DC MAJOR DYSFUNCTION here. Sorry bobesox, I see nothing here but negativity. If you can find something positive about this scene I'd like to read it.

Alicat28 and others....

I can certanily understand your concern about the family not noticing missing kids.... I can also think twice about the neighbor that felt the foul-smell and did not called Sanitation or the Health Dept after a few days......

but I - for once - have to give the neighbors the benefit of the doubt: in the middle of winter, the sightings of my neigbor's kids decreases to the point that I can tell you right now I have not seen my neighbor's 4 year old kid in a few weeks.... WHY??? because by the time I get home, is dark, and the kids are inside....(and is also too cold to play for too long outside).....and I leave too early in the morning to see them...

all considerations apart... this is a mayor tragedy.....hope God rest their souls.....

No one is blaiming neighbors, schools or relatives. All we are saying is that this is a very sad situation. It is apparent that the mother (and I use the term loosely) was mentally disturbed. She should have been physically sick from the smell of not one but four dead bodies. Most likely she should have been institutionalized a long time ago.

We see daily how there are many disturbed and deranged individuals walking the same streets as you and I and the only time their behavior is questioned is when there are innocent victims involved.

Why all this whining about who should have known what and when? The fact that the bodies were left undiscovered for weeks is irrelevant.

The key point is that this woman apparently murdered her children. So now we want to point fingers at the school or police or neighbors? All they could have done is kept down the smell a bit.

The woman is the culprit. Having someone notice that the children were missing earlier wouldn't bring them back.

Quit blaming everyone else for the terrible crime this woman committed.

This woman was clearly disturbed. What is most disturbing is that no one noticed and no one acted. To live next to a home what has a smell of rotting flesh and you not call authorities says words about you. To live next to a home where you know there were once a family of 5 and now 4 of them seems to have just vanished and there is suddenly a fowl smell speaks volumes about people and their lack of of caring. If it was a sewer back up they would be all on channel 7 news complaining about WASA. Why not call the police and say there is a smell coming fro next door?? Why not call the landlord and say something isn't right in your unit?? Why not just give a care about your surroundings??

It is sad that the government can track us from the time we are born ttil the time we die but "home schooled" kids don't have to answer to some othe than their parents. It is sad that the Social Services system closes cases "because the family moved"...well did the kids go back to the fetal stage at the new address??

To live in a world where ball players and politicans make millions. Yet the local teachers are struggling to get books is crazy. Hopefully before my days come to an end people will just look around..and start giving a dam.

This lady is 31 years old with a 18 year old child. She had her first kid at 13 this means. She most likely has been on some type of government assistance for 18 years. I am tired of hearing stories like this. Women like this who have more kids so they can have a bigger check each month. The government should have stepped in long ago and cut people like this off from using our tax dollars to support this behavior. Now look what happened, 4 kids murdered. The government should really consider a sterilization program for anyone who has one child and requests assistant. This would solve the on going child abuse often found in these communities.

No please no negatieves here - this is just horrible. I did hear on the news that one neighborhood asked the lady about the children and she said they were in NC. We hear bits and pieces and wonder and speculate but nothing will change the situation. They are all dead and I do wonder how. The smell had to have been awful - am surprised some to the neighbors did not smell it. We had one next door to us in an apt. and only for a day or so and it was terrible. I do think this is a wake up call for the agencies involved. If there are problems and then you are informed they have moved to MD I think follow up is necessary to be sure and to alert MD. If the school thinks they are being home schooled I know someone should be aware of that as I know children who are home schooled and the parent has people checking. It is too late for these children and I know for a fact that all CPS units are overloaded, understaffed and underpaid. When will we get people in office that will make things like this priority? Why do I keep beating that dead horse? I want people in authority to make safety, homelessness and hunger a TOP priority. That is an every day prayer of mine. Yes, her pouring bleach on the toys should have sent up a red flag.

From the Washington Post: "A police source said authorities believe the children had missed a lot of school and that one had not been to class in 33 days."

Shame kids can be out of school so long and it is is no big deal to the school authorities.

By the way, it is "don't know anything" not "don't know nothing."

Then again....maybe the bleach and smashing toys wasn't odd behavior for the area ?....at least not odd enough to throw-up a red flag by neighbors.

To Alicat28 - WTOP reports that the children were not registered in any DC public or charter school, and they thought they were being home schooled. Also, Social Services were involved last year but closed their case when they were told the family moved to MD.

i am sure the odor was strong as well. that is nasty. God rest their souls,.

Very profound Ali. I was hoping I would not hear a barrage of negativy here. This is very sad and disturbing.

These children are to have said to be decomposing, suggesting that they had been dead for perhaps upwards of two weeks...How is it that four (4) children can go "missing" for upwards of two weeks and NO-ONE notices-did the school not call/neighbors concerned? How do you just not "see" that children-especially 4 of them have not come out of a house for that amount of time? Is it really that easy for people to "look the other way" or decide that getting involveded-especially in the lives of children, just isn't worth it-or to time-consuming? This is a very sad situation. God rest their little souls.