that can be recycled . How could a woman
live in that house? You've taken 40
pain relievers. I have to call the ambulance. I love my grandkids. [crying] It was you that got
my kids taken away! I've got a lot
of hurt in my life. Something has definitely
died in this house. Hating yourself is
not going to help you. [crying] He's mean to you. I'm lucky you
haven't killed me. [dog barking] I'm Manny. And I like to collect almost
anything that can be recycled. [hammering] My wife dreamed that the
police had come into the house and took the grandkids. She said, we need to
clean up the whole house. It will be clean
if it does happen. I'm John. And Manuel's my dad. My dad had a messy house. But he kept on telling
me he was cleaning it up. He was cleaning it up. And I believed him. I'm Janellen. And I Manuel's daughter-in-law. We know he was a
dirty housekeeper. But we didn't have a babysitter. We couldn't afford it. We had no other choice but
for Manuel to watch them. This environment is
not exactly that safe for the children. When I opened the door, she
noticed that there was a toy car in there and the clutter. Sometimes, when you're
so used to something, you don't think of things. And it's gotten very bad. [siren blaring] I opened the door. And they told me about
the search warrant. I figured they just wanted to
make sure the kids were fine. They spent, like, three hours
in there with the door open. And I just sat out there. What could I do? The police officer called me. And I couldn't get
a hold of John. I was at home sleeping,
because I worked overnight. When I get the call,
I hear my wife crying. And I just rushed over
to my dad's house. And the cops were there. And we tell them that
we don't even live here. Then, all of a
sudden, I'm sitting in the backseat of a cop car. Looking back at my kids watching
me, that broke my heart. I just busted out crying. My three younger kids
are trying to figure out what's going on. And my 9-year-old knows. My grandson, Joshua,
told me, Grandpa, your mess is getting taken away
from mommy and daddy. Child endangerment
is a state felony. And we could get up
to six months in jail. I'm so mad at him. It's not deliberate. It's just, if I
can't do anything, why should I even try? I am Denise. And I a Manuel's ex-wife. [crying]
I'm sorry. These are my grandkids that
these people are messing with. And they're doing it all wrong. It's wrong. They should have never
been taken away from them. They arrested us. Two people that don't
even live there because we couldn't afford babysitting. It's not John and
Janellen's mess. They would never put
their kids in danger. Never. I'm not a type of person
that has a messy house. I have to have my house clean. They didn't really
look at my house until after they took them away. The CPS lady showed
up, the same one that was at my dad's house
and took close ups of all the negative stuff. And then tried to say
that both houses were bad. They didn't say what I
needed to do to the house. They just looked at
the negative stuff. Talk to Daddy. He's right here. Josh, tell you brother
and sisters we love them. OK. They're having
a very hard time. Because these kids have
never been away from them. We talked to the kids a
little after all this happened. And my 9-year-old says,
are you out of jail? You know, what's happening? Why did they take us? But he told us that he
cries himself to sleep. I felt bad for
the whole thing. But what could I do? I couldn't do anything. It was so many years trying
to clean up and failing. He doesn't take the
blame for anything. He blames me, blames John. Blames everybody
else but himself. I'm hoping my
grandkids come home. It's killing me inside. He did wrong. He should have
never did all that. And my kids got taken away. My kids are my life. My name is Carla. And I'm a secretary
at a small bank. I collect worthless stuff. I buy lotion, shampoo,
conditioner, coffee cups, glasses, pots, and pans. My name is Jennifer. And Carla is my aunt. My aunt's house is just a mess. You can't even walk through
it, let alone live there. My kitchen-- the mice
have knocked things out of the cabinets onto the floor. You hear the mice kind of
squeaking and wrestling around. My name is Cindy and
Carla is my sister. I have not seen my
sister's house in 12 years. We knew it was messy. But we didn't know
how bad it was. I think that I shop and I
work to make myself feel better. Because I had a lot
of hurt in my life. All my marriages were bad. My sister has a habit of
getting into bad relationships, abusive, just not
very nice guys. I guess I really fell
into a deep depression. And that's when it
really got out of hand. Once the filth started,
she couldn't get anyone to repair things
that were breaking. The furnace broke. The stove broke. The refrigerator broke. After the plumbing
started going, she was going to my
grandparents to do her laundry. She would go to the gym to
do her showers before work. My mom found out
she had cancer. Broke my dad's heart. In the middle of her cancer, he
got real sick all of a sudden and died. And my mom, she died
about six months later. [crying] We would go to her house. She would not answer the door. She wouldn't let us in. My mom and dad would
be so ashamed of me. I'm Rick. And Carla's my girlfriend. I never have seen Carla's
house from the time that I met her, never have. I've tried to prepare him
for what my house looks like. I hope he doesn't blow up. I did bring things
into his house. And I hide it from him. And he gets upset about it. She does kind of
hide stuff away from me and make sure that, you
know, I don't get upset. It kind of makes me mad. He has these mood swings. He calls them mood swings. He's very verbally
abusive to my sister. I'm kind of,
like, an alcoholic. I'm trying to quit. But it's not easy. He loses his temper, flies
off the handle, goes on a rage. He's kept me away
from my family. He's been very controlling. She needs to get out
of that relationship. My sister does need a place
to live away from abusive men. My hands are tied. Because I really don't
have anywhere else to live right now. So I have to put up with that. It's hard. It's not right. It's not fair. It shouldn't be happening. I mean, just because of one
person having a mental problem. I feel bad for the kids. I haven't been inside yet. I haven't either. I'm Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist. And I specialize in OCD
and compulsive hoarding. I haven't been in there for
about seven or eight months. We had no idea it was this bad. John and Janellen say they
didn't have any idea, which is just hard to believe knowing
that these children have been coming over month after
month, several hours a day into this environment. And from what I understand,
John is on his way back from court right now. And do you know the
outcome of that? It doesn't really look
good on our outcome. The max that we could get,
jail time, is six months. Where are your children now? They're in a shelter. Manny?
Hi. Dr. Zasio. - Oh, glad to meet you.
- Glad to meet you, too. - They told me you were coming.
- Yes. - Would you like to come in?
- I would. Thank you. There we go. Oh, my gosh. Manny? There are roaches
running in your freezer. It's clear from
the very first step that this house is not safe. I could only imagine for
a 5, 6, and 9-year-old to walk into this house. The experience that they would
have crawling through this maze and trying to make
any sense of it. Janellen, how is it that the
children were coming over here for so long and
you and your husband didn't know about the
condition of the home? He would always come
over and pick them up. What's incredibly
frustrating about this family is everybody denies. No one's taking
any responsibility. This is a shocking situation. You have four children that were
coming here regularly, daily. I'm so embarrassed. Hi, John. Thanks for joining us. Dr. Zasio, it's
nice to meet you. What do you think
when you see this, knowing that your kids
were coming over every day? I felt bad for my kids. Anything more? I mean, I'm just imagining
my kids living here. I'm watching roaches run up
the walls with fecal matter everywhere. The floor is not safe. I mean, other than feeling
bad, that's just kind of it? You do see that this was not
a safe home for your children. Yes. John and Janellen knowingly
putting their children in this environment absolutely
would lead to a charge of child endangerment. Likewise, Manny
allowing these children to come into this
environment would also lead to a charge of
child endangerment. You know, Manny, you have a hard
time seeing how bad this really is. You've been arrested. They've been arrested. Your grandchildren are
in a shelter right now. I know.
I know. [crying] My grandkids. It's how I live. Oh, I know I've got to-- [sobbing] I didn't
want this to happen. I know. [crying] It's horrible. It's a nightmare. Hide from everybody. Just live a fake life,
pretend that I'm normal. I hate it. I wish I wasn't like this. Why did I let myself get
into a mess like this that I can't get out of? You can see that the rats
have just eaten everything. The smell is overwhelming. All this, it's
all rat [bleep].. Something has definitely
died in this house. That's the size
rats that are in here. That's a big ass rat. Rats have eaten all along here. That's all fresh urine. Clearly, rats
living everywhere, but you can't see them. Turning on the night vision. So I'm lying down. Going to try to sleep. You really start freaking out. Because the lights are off. And you can't see
what's happening. You don't even want to open
your mouth because you don't want, like, a bug. I tried to close my
eyes a couple of times. But immediately,
you start opening. Because you just don't want
anything to crawl all over you. Nasty cockroaches. This house has two different
worlds living in it, roaches and rats. I'm not going to go to sleep. We're going to all
stay up all night. And that's what a hoarder does. It's this constant waiting
on bad things to happen. And because you're waiting
for bad things to happen, even worse things happen. It's a horrible way to live. This is an interesting
house, rat urine. I tried to sleep
there last night. It's pretty uncomfortable. It's also about 105,
110 degrees in there. Carla? I'm Dr. Melva Green, a
board certified psychiatrist specializing in anxiety
disorders and hoarding behaviors. Hi. I'm Dr. Green.
- Hi. I'm Carla. Nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you, too. Carla, there's no door here. Where is your door? I don't have a door. Come on in. Watch your step. What do we got here? I don't even remember the
kitchen getting like this, the floor getting cluttered like
that where you couldn't walk through it.
- You don't remember. I don't remember.
- Well, listen. There's no judgment here. I'm just trying to
get some understanding so I can help her-- I just hate myself
for it, though. No. Hating yourself is
not going to help you. Carla, hating yourself
is not going to help you. I know. OK? This is about you
getting better. OK? This is about you
reclaiming your life, getting your own identity. You have beat yourself down. Everything in here
shows me exactly how mean you've been to you. It's time for you to
start being kind to Carla. All right? She has to focus on
herself, figure out why she's allowed herself
to be in this situation. Prior to now, I had not been
in Janellen and John's house. I was shocked. Everything's covered with rat
feces, dust, mold, and mildew. There's no beds. There's no sheets. Other than a few
toys, no evidence that children live here. Children have to
have an environment that they can thrive in. We're going to do everything
that we can to make this house livable. The way I see it, nobody's
going to stand in my way from getting my kids back.
- I hear you. Make sure you deal with that. Dr. Zasio sat me
down and was explaining why CPS was concerned. I fully understand. And we're fixing the problems. We're getting our kids back. What's amazing is that this
house is only 15 years old. My name's Corey Chalmers. I'm an extreme cleaner,
specializing in biohazard and hoarding. This is all crumbling around
you because of the hoarding. Hopefully, Manny will start
to realize how important this is that he lets go of stuff
so the grandchildren can go to his house again. We need to get
this area cleaned. The dishes, I-- the dishes I can't take. I can't throw
anything away here. Because it's all hers. I'm Liz. And Manny is my husband. It's been difficult living
with him with all the clutter. And we've had arguments. And he always promised he would. But he just hasn't. Throw everything out. So you're giving
permission for him. If he says throw it away,
it can be thrown away? Yes. She just said yes. Even the dishes? Even the dishes. All this was here when
they were staying here? Mhm. That just upset me so
bad, I just turned around and walked out. I'm really sorry. I can't take it. I can't believe my
grandkids was in that. I can't believe my grandkids
was in that kind of filth. I can't-- Stop! Hey. Don't tell her to stop. These are her real
true feelings. She just saw what her
grandchildren were staying and living in. How could he live like that? When he's like that--
- No. OK?
This is ridiculous. No. There's a reason why
we're here, to clean up, not to fricking judge. When John sees somebody
else getting emotional, it's hard for him. I'm not judging, John. These are her
grandchildren, John. He just gets angry
and blows a top. (YELLING) I'm upset
more than anybody here. They took my kids
away for no reason! I know that, Johnny. That's what I'm saying. But my house wasn't that bad! I know your house
wasn't that bad. They were spending
time over here. That's--
- Well, we had no other choice. No babysitter!
- I know that. I know. But I'm saying how could
a woman live in that house? How can a woman have
his house that filthy? Because it was hard to
fricking clean because she couldn't get to [bleep]. That's a bunch of bull. I used to be
married to this man. And my house never
looked like that. Because you kids meant more than
me than a [bleep] dirty house. [yelling] And they allowed their grandkids
to walk through that crap? You don't let your
grandkids walk in that mess. You just don't. I want to get
this [bleep] done. Damn it. Now everybody's
fricking pissing me off. We need to get
this [bleep] done. And I will get my kids back. Calm down. No! I'm not going to calm down now. No! I have tried to confront her
and say let us all plan a day to come in and help you. And she has always refused that. She's very embarrassed
and ashamed. None of the family has
even seen the house yet. So I want to send them in so
they really understand what they're dealing with. Oh, my goodness. Wow. When did all this happen? 12 years ago was the last
time I was in the house. The kitchen was messy. But no dead rats living
anywhere 12 years ago. I never experienced
nothing like that. So I'm like-- yeah. Oh [bleep]. You guys have been
together how long? We've been together
going on five years. I never did come in. But I never expected-- not like this, anyway. I'm sorry, honey. It's OK. We're going to help you. We're going to clean it up. So this is maggots
all over there. Jennifer was just telling me
she came to clean 11 years ago. I was warned not to
open the refrigerator. 11 years ago? Yeah. This is the thing
about hoarding. When you are able
to ignore so much, you're able to ignore
the reality that this is in your house. I'm pretty ashamed. [crying] Once I get my
kids back, I'm just going to think about my kids. I could care less about
anybody's mess or anything. That's the bottom line! Instead of coming out
and screaming at me, you should have come
over and gave me a hug and said, Mom, don't
worry about things. It'll be OK. And not yell and scream at me. We can fricking do
all that crap later. You OK? It just kind of hurt
to have Johnny come out and holler at me about
it and, you know, told me to keep quiet. But see, he's a volcano. He lets it build. And then it all comes out. (YELLING) Everything
needs to go! I got rid of a lot
of stuff already. He wants to save a fence. Just a fence,
one little fence. You just open this up
and patch up the hole. You need to worry about
getting your grandkids back. No, you're yelling too much.
And you don't have to. No! I can yell! I'm going to blow my crap. - You don't have to.
- Yes! I do!
- That's normal for him. He does that.
- OK. (YELLING) Well,
because you piss me off! Yeah. Because it was you that
got my kids taken away! Look at all this stuff
I'm getting rid of. (SCREAMING) It's junk!
It's junk! - --more than anything.
- It's junk! John. We know you're angry. And that's why I'm
letting you vent. But at this point,
you're not going to get anywhere by yelling. OK? So I know it doesn't feel
like he's really concerned about you.
But he is. That's why he's angry. This anger is about hurt. This family has
been using anger as a means to communicate. Typically, when
someone's angry, it's because they're feeling hurt. And this family doesn't want
to go to that place of hurt, specifically, John. I'm always hurt. Especially when my kids
have to be involved. My kids are my life. And he did this to me. At this point, we're in total
conflict with the whole family yelling at each other,
screaming at each other. This was a process for
them that was long overdue. We tried to help clean up. And y'all didn't help
the situation, either. I mean, it's not just Manuel. It's you bringing
your wine bottles and leaving them everywhere. I mean, there's a
trash can for a reason. It's just endless when
nobody else helps. This is me and John still. I know they are your grandkids. I know you love them. But them taken away
because of this house and because of our house. Because Manuel stored
his [bleep] in there was the last straw. I know you all love the kids. But if Manuel doesn't get
this [bleep] thing cleaned up, then the kids aren't
allowed over here anymore. I don't want to be here. And I just want to die. I do. I still do want to die. Liz is feeling suicidal. She's hopeless and says
she doesn't want to live. I've been wanting to die
for years because of all this. I'm tired of it. She tells me that she has
overdosed on more than 40 pain relievers. I have to call an ambulance. You've taken 40
pain relievers, Liz. And if you're telling me
you want to die, I mean, that's serious. At this point,
I have no choice but to call 911 and get
an ambulance out here to assess her. [siren blaring] Manny? How you doing? How you doing? I'm concerned about Manny. He's already overwhelmed
with the clean up process. Now that his wife has expressed
that she wants to die, that she's overdosed
on pills, it just adds a whole other
element to this situation. At this point, everybody's
in different directions. And nobody really
knows what to do. Carla is doing an awesome job. And she is embracing
her emotions. She's crying a lot. She needs to release
those tears to move on. I'm looking forward to
her getting her house back and moving away from the
person that she's with. My name is Mark Howard. I'm here to assess and take
care of the pest problem. We know there's
rats in this house. It's become a big obstacle
at the end of the day here. OK. You've got a couple traps here. And there's the other
ones right there. We went through every
inch of this house. I think that's a good spot. We've set traps and put
poison everywhere we can. I see some droppings here. Yeah? There's so much
feces in this house. It's amazing. It's incredible. I mean, it's more
than I've ever seen. It's overwhelming to me
after 22 years of doing this. Look at this, man. Look how bad it is.
- Yeah. They've even
eaten through there. They've eaten everything. So they could
burn the house down. I'm shocked that
you've been so helpful. I thought that you would
be mad at me by now. No. I'm not mad at you. I just didn't know
that you had-- - But will you be later?
- No. No. I realize that you have a worse
situation than I expected. What do you mean? You need-- you need-- Help. You need help. Yeah. So do you, hon, with your
anger, with your drinking. You need some help-- bad. I don't know what else to say. I guess we're as good
as it's going to get. And the story you
told is that you've got an abusive boyfriend. You've got to get out
because you're afraid. And since we've been
here, he's been a peach. He's putting on a
show for everybody. I think he is really careful
about the things he says and the way he acts in
front of other people. When he thinks nobody's looking
and when he thinks nobody's listening, then that's
when he lashes out at her. [crying] Every time you call
me and I hear things about him, he's mean to you. You're always
crying and unhappy. How can that be good company? [crying] It's not. No, it's not. You can come and stay with us. You can go to Jenny's. You've got all of us. And you're choosing
that over us. She stays in
bad relationships. She said that a bad relationship
is better than no relationship. We've been trying to convince
her that that's not true. I think it's time to
get him out of her life. In a few minutes, I'll
bring the two of you together so that we can talk. OK. Let's get it done. [crying] [crying] He's mean to you. You're always
crying and unhappy. My aunt needs her
house cleaned out so that she'll have a safe place
to live to get away from Ricky. I haven't been
honest with you. And I'm afraid to
tell you how I really feel because I'm scared of you. And you make me so unhappy. You've threatened to come over
and trash my house before. I've never. You threw my purse at
me and hit me in the back. I'm lucky you haven't killed me. You make it sound
like I'm an evil person. When you're drinking? Making me like I'm
some monster now. I mean, I'm sorry
you feel that way. But no, I'm not no evil person. You cannot deny the
way that you treat her. I have heard--
- I've talked about that. --the way you treat her. You call, and we can hear
you screaming so loud. Because that's all you
do is call and scream and call and scream. You'll just blurt
out anything to me, no matter how horrible it is. I think my aunt is finally
standing up for herself. I'm tired of hiding. I'm tired of hiding my house. I'm tired of hiding
my bad relationships. I want a fresh start. You feel that I'm
that bad a person? Yes. My aunt did break up with him. And I'm glad. And I'm proud of her. This is like a new start, the
best start she could have. We're in a fun,
happy place right now. And we don't need
to be there yet. You've done awesome. But the day is not over. We've still got a
good, full day of work. There's the trash
right behind you. You can do it! Yay! Yay! Carla made my job very easy. She let me take 95%
out of the house. We threw 16 truckloads, almost
35,000 pounds out of the house. We're going to bring in
some maids and some stagers to make this house awesome. All right, family and Carla. You did it, end of the clean up. We don't always
get to this part. We did it. We? Who is included in "we?" You. You ready? I'm ready. Let's go. It's gorgeous. I love it. It's beautiful. I saw a picture of
our parents up there. My parents knew
she had a problem. We didn't know it
was called hoarding. They knew that she wouldn't
let anybody in her house and that upset them. They would be so
proud of you here. [crying] It's just amazing
to have my house back. I would have never got it
back without everybody's help. We have a dining
room, clean table. I can start coming and
having dinner with you instead of you coming
to my house every week. My bed! I never thought I'd get
to see it like this. Carla is clearly
going to need aftercare. All of her things are gone. She's just broken up with Ricky. She's going to have to
spend some time rebuilding her self-esteem so that she
can really gain a new identity. Are you worthy of
something like this? Yes. [siren blaring] Liz is now on her
way to the hospital. She's going to be evaluated
to determine whether or not she can return home. Take it easy right now, OK? She's going to be gone for
at least three days now. At this point, I don't know
how Manny's going to respond. It's just so much
with everything. Everything was going good. We're giving him
a break, letting him process what just happened. Hopefully, at some point, we
can get his home finished. The grandchildren still
need a place to go. And this is the
priority right now. Liz trying to commit suicide,
it really opened his eyes. And he had a change. I had to be a new person. But I couldn't do it alone. Everybody helped out. This can go. That can go. You know, he's really
rose to this challenge. And I think he's accepted
the responsibility for it. And he has really
let everything go. We're at John and Janellen's. We have the whole family here. We're going to show
them these rooms that we've created
for the children. This is what it's all about. Oh, my gosh. Goodness. They did a good job. In these two kids' rooms,
we had a lot of work to do. We had cleaners, painters,
maids, drywall people, everyone come and
restore these rooms so they're safe, functional,
and fun for children. - That's nice!
- Oh. They even have-- Look at the pictures! Look how nice they are. I'm looking forward to
seeing my kids back home. And they will probably
give me and mommy a big hug and start probably tearing. And I'm going to
start crying, too. And they're going to
love the house now. Oh, heck. Those kids will love this. Look at that. The kids having a proper
place to sleep, a clean room. I think that will help Johnny
and Janellen's CPS case. We've done everything we
can to this home to make sure that when CPS comes back,
they'll sign it off and release the kids. We're working to
get our kids back. And it's looking positive. It's been a long week. You guys ready to go in
and see your new home? Yes. - Yes.
- I'm excited. I can't wait.
- Let's go. Wow. We can have
Thanksgiving over here. We can have the kids over
here and let them play. Everybody sit down. Like we wanted all the time. It's like a house
again, like a home again. And it's just-- it's beautiful. I can't wait for
Liz to come see it. She's going to get all excited. I think my hoarding
affected her a lot, a lot more than I realized. I like what I see. This is the way it's
going to stay, too. Aftercare is going
to be critical for him. Not only to address his ongoing
compulsive hoarding issues, but to address
the family issues. We're really proud of you. We didn't expect you
to give up so much. [crying] Those kids are worth it. They're worth it. I love them very much. I love you guys, too. I'm glad I reached out for help. It changed my life completely.
