A woman who lived at a squalid Massachusetts home where the bodies of three infants were found has been ordered held without bail.
Erika Murray, 31, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Uxbridge District Court on several charges including fetal death concealment out of wedlock, witness intimidation, misleading a police officer, animal cruelty and two counts of permitting substantial injury to a child.
Murray is not charged in the deaths of the three infants found in her Blackstone, Mass. home. There, police are still investigating what remains a hazardous crime scene. Yesterday they removed vermin and piles of soiled diapers, and investigators have not ruled out the possibility that more bodies may be inside.
Investigators have not yet announced whether Murray is the mother of the three dead children. Birth records are missing for the two younger, living children. The two older children are hers. And all four are in state custody.
Meanwhile, the search continued for more possible bodies at the Blackstone home were four other children previously were removed.
All documents in the case have been impounded to protect the identities of the children. The judge agreed to a request by a prosecutor to seal a file concerning a previous court appearance on reckless endangerment charges related to the two youngest of the four children taken from the home last month.
Murray's lawyer, Keith Halpern, pointing to the conditions in the home, suggested that his client was mentally ill.
A psychiatric evaluation was not ordered for Murray at Friday’s hearing.
