Marie Claire Article

Daughters of Hoarders-August 2007 (pdf.)

Story sent in 2/12/07 by a daughter of a hoarder

This website is a Godsend! It's encouraging, but so sad, to
find out so many others are dealing with these issues.
I'm now in my 30s with a husband and home of my own, but my childhood experience is still
an integral part of who I am. My mom is a hoarder,...

(click "read more" to continue)

Elizabeth writes "

Thompson, 41, was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation for allowing her three children to live without running water in the squalid conditions of the Lower Saucon Township home.

"

8/4/06

Where to begin?

I just returned from a visit to my mom's house. She lives on the opposite side of the country. I think I live where I do to purposely not have to feel ashamed of her and her mess anymore.

I had not been there in over 4 years, it has always been bad, but now it has gotton so much worse. I always have been fearful of her mess, my secret, coming out. People who know me, friends, co workers, inlaws etc. have no idea how bad it was growing up in her house and just how
much worse it has gotten. She reflects her home so I am always cautious of who I allow to meet her when she visits. I too prepared my husband for what he was about to see as we drove up to her house. I have told him for sometime that her house was extreme and nothing one could possibly imagine, but even I was shocked when we got there.

Chat 12/5/06-Re: Surviving a parent's mental illness

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But as someone else wrote on this website, she is not just a hoarder.
She is my mother.
I love her, and I grieve that she has
suffered with this condition for years.

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A daughter and only child of a hoarder.

Children of Alcoholics: Caged, Silenced Songbirds

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This is very much the experience of children of hoarders too. 

Clean the junk out of your house now, or realize others will be grumbling at you later

Fredricksburg.com/Free-Lance Star
Date published: 11/5/2006

FOR THOSE of you out there who are pack rats, and have your basements and attics bulging with every possession you've ever had, I have news. Get rid of the junk now or know that others will one day have to fight through it.

That's the truth I took away from a day helping relatives clean out the house of a family member who passed away awhile back.This is the second or third one of these house-cleanings I've done in recent years--all for houses of people who either grew up in the Depression or heard about it from those who did.

The result of living through or being constantly told about that period when abject poverty was felt by so many is, apparently, a concern that those days will come back. With that possibility in mind, many of those children of the Depression developed a preservation methodology known as hoarding...

Plea deal struck in cat obsession
Couple barred from owning pets and must continue counseling

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By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield@knews.com
October 13, 2006

Excerpts:
Mother. Grandmother. Cat collector. Husband. Grandpa. Enabler. They were a couple with a ghastly secret that, when uncovered, would shock a community.

Soon, she began collecting more of the animals, this time at the Tazewell Pike home in North Knoxville where she and her husband lived. Charles Sexton knew something was wrong with his wife's psyche, but, like an alcoholic's kin, learned simply to live with the situation, according to a prosecutor.

NY State Office of Children & Family Service
Understanding Hoarding Behavior: Hoarding assesment tools, Saving Inventory, Building codes, Laws

Early Family Experience Can Reverse The Effects Of Genes, UCLA Psychologists Report

Main Category: Depression News
Article Date: 11 Oct 2006 - 10:00am (PDT)


Early family experience can reverse the effect of a genetic variant linked to depression, UCLA researchers report in the current issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Among children from supportive, nurturing families, those with the short form of the serotonin transporter gene (known as 5-HTTLPR) had a significantly reduced risk for depression, found the UCLA team, under the direction of Shelley E. Taylor, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and an expert in the field of stress and health. The research team also found that among children from emotionally cold, unsupportive homes marked by conflict and anger, those with the short form of the 5-HTTLPR gene were at greater risk for depression, as some previous research has also shown...

Ruff family cleared of all charges

Couple had been accused of child endangerment

September 27. 2006 8:00AM

A

judge has dismissed all charges against a Warner couple accused of living in a home so squalid it endangered their children. Merrimack Superior Court Judge Kenneth McHugh found that the search warrant used to gather evidence in the home of Bryon and Wendy Ruff had been improperly granted. Last night, Wendy Ruff, who has long challenged the town's unannounced search of her house, said she felt vindicated by the ruling.

A 'deplorable' home
When the police and other town officials searched the house in August 2005, they found conditions that the health officer, Charles Durgin, described as "deplorable." Rotting food and animal waste littered the floors, while loose insulation sagged from unfinished walls. Durgin condemned the house and ordered the Ruffs and their five children to clean it, which they did.

The state veterinarian, who assisted town officials, found the living conditions of the Ruffs' 57 animals to be unfit, and he ordered their seizure. A district court ruling granted permanent custody of those pets - including goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, geese, rabbits, dogs and cats - to the state this winter.

The parents were charged with criminal child endangerment two weeks later. If they had been convicted, they would have each faced up to five years in jail and $10,000 in fines. Sgt. Scott Leppard of the Warner police department said in court that the police had only come to provide security for Durgin, but when officers saw the conditions inside the house, they felt that a crime had been committed. ...go here to read more of story.http://tinyurl. com/rqlra

The Ruffs say the town has long persecuted them. Neighbors say they are the family's victims.

By MARGOT SANGER KATZ
Monitor staff
September 04. 2005 10:00AM

..."Next Thursday, the Ruffs will be arraigned on the child endangerment charges, and in about a month, the selectmen will determine whether the property has been improved to their specifications. Bryon Ruff's trial for the alleged domestic assault, and Wendy's for allegedly threatening her brother-in-law are both scheduled for October. What will happen after that is hard to predict. "...

Go here to read the full story.

Woman admits neglect count in mother’s death

By Dionne Waugh

The Journal Gazette

Alberta P. Puff thought she was taking care of her elderly Fort Wayne mother. She had always done everything her mother told her to do.

But Puff, who psychologists found barely competent for trial, should have known to seek medical attention before her 80-year-old mother died of malnutrition, dehydration and skin ulcers.

Willodean Puff was found lying on a mattress on top of and surrounded by foot-high piles of newspapers, Disney videos and trash, some of which had been there for years.

Alberta Puff admitted her actions Wednesday in Allen Superior Court when she pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors who agreed to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor and recommend a 180-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation.

Puff, of the 3500 block of South Hanna Street, told the judge she was 59 and three-quarters years old and softly answered yes to questions.

She was originally charged with neglecting a dependent as a Class B felony, which carries a punishment of six to 20 years in prison. Instead, prosecutors amended the charge to a Class B misdemeanor of neglecting a dependent or endangered adult.

Puff told police she did not seek medical care for her mother because her mother told her not to.

Paramedics found Willodean Puff dead inside the Hanna Street house on Feb. 4, 2005. Police noticed that she was thin and had large bedsores on her body and a large open wound on her hip. It appeared she had been dead for some time, possibly months, according to court records.

Her death was ruled a homicide in May 2005. In addition to dehydration and malnutrition, Puff died of necrotic skin ulcers because of elder abuse and neglect, an Allen County coroner’s report said.

Alberta Puff told police her mother could not feed herself, clean herself or do anything for herself. She said she would only feed or clean her mother if she let her.

Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Michael Mc Alexander said after the hearing it would have been difficult to prove that Puff fully understood she had a greater responsibility.

“Three different psychologists evaluated her and were split on her sanity and competency. We could argue who was taking care of whom?” McAlexander said.

Other people verified that Puff did whatever her mother told her to and that her mother was domineering, McAlexander said.

Defense attorney Michelle Kraus said the agreement was a fair resolution that resolved the case without going to trial.

“She was scared (of going to trial). She has led such a structured life. She graduated from high school, but her mom told her what to do and what not to do,” Kraus said.

The pair lived in filth at their house, McAlexander said, describing the piles that covered the entire house. One bedroom was completely closed off because of the amount of trash, and it was clear the bathroom had not been cleaned in years, he said. The Puff women slept on mattresses on top of the filth on the floor, he said.

“It’s a very sad case,” McAlexander said. “We take these cases very seriously. We have to look at the circumstances of each case, but the minimum standard that we require even with someone who’s minimally competent is that they must report when someone is deteriorating physically and needs medical care.

“Certainly for the elderly, we need to assist them. They shouldn’t die alone, unattended, malnourished, lying on a filthy mattress.”

dwaugh@jg.net

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/15241364.htm

A woman is charged for allegedly raising her
6-year-old in a feline-fouled apartment

Wednesday, September 06, 2006
HOLLY DANKS
HILLSBORO -- A 36-year-old Beaverton woman was charged Tuesday with a felony that accuses her of raising her 6-year-old son in an apartment so overrun with cats that it was a danger to the boy.

Jennifer Megan Gaines, who had 31 cats in her Sterling Pointe apartment, was arraigned on one count each of first-degree criminal mistreatment, and first- and second-degree animal neglect.

After a neighbor reported a suspicious odor June 9, police and a state welfare caseworker arranged for Gaines' 6-year-old son and 17- year-old daughter to stay with their godmother.

"It was determined that it was unsafe for the children to spend another minute inside of the residence," Officer Ryan Potter wrote
in his report. "As soon as I entered the residence the odor was so overwhelming that I almost vomited."

Cat and dog hoarding typically generates headlines, and the public responded in this case with donations for food and medical care. But animal abuse is a misdemeanor, while criminal mistreatment of a person is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $125,000...

Hoarder's conviction in aiding in son's suicide overturned
AP
HARTFORD, Conn. (Aug. 28) - The Connecticut Supreme Court on Monday overturned a mother's conviction on charges that she contributed to her 12-year-old son's suicide by creating an unsafe and unhealthy home.

Judith Scruggs of Meriden was convicted of risk of injury to a minor in 2003, a year and a half after her son, J. Daniel, hanged himself
with a necktie in his closet.

Legal experts said it was thought to be the first time a parent had been convicted over a child's suicide.

Scruggs said her son killed himself because he was bullied at school, and she filed a federal lawsuit against Meriden school officials
contending they should have stopped it. The case inspired a new state law requiring schools to report bullies to authorities, and many
school districts revamped bullying policies.

In court three years ago, authorities testified that the Scruggs home was so dirty that the medical examiner had to climb over heaps of
debris to get to the boy's body...(click "Read more" below)

(The Concord Monitor online)

Officials worry the Ruffs are at it again *
By Margot Sanger-Katz, Monitor staff
July 30. 2006 10:00AM

Drive down West Joppa Roadin Warner, and the scene is similar to what you would have seen a year ago. The home of Wendy and Bryon Ruff is surrounded by parked cars, old bicycles and heaps of trash and metal. Animals roam the property. The only obvious change is the 6-foot-high fencing the Ruffs' neighbors have put up.

Last August, town and state officials judged the house unlivable and condemned it, they deemed the animals neglected and seized 57 pets, and they ordered the family to clean up the 5/8-acre yard. In response, the Ruffs fixed up their house, cleared their yard and removed structures that selectmen said spilled onto a neighbor's property....(click "read more" below to continue and take the poll related to this article and/or enter your comments about it)...

Online Newsource.  There are 62 public responses to this letter so you can see what others think about solutions...

It mentions COH website: