Parents from “House of Horror” must go to prison for endangering seven children

Crystal Roberston, Shane Robertson (Pennridge County Police Department)

The mother and father of seven children, ages four to 16, were sentenced to prison in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, ordered to have no contact with their children until their 18th birthdays and to do so “only with the consent of a court-appointed therapist.” Several months after pleading guilty in a horror trailer case that featured animals being treated better in cages and feeding one animal, an exotic tegu lizard, salmon on its own TikTok account because all but one of the children were malnourished, prosecutors said.

According to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, Shane Robertson (48) and Crystal Robertson (38) will be sentenced to eight to 16 years in prison. They are accused of child endangerment and animal neglect, and were also accused of assault.

The case began in April 2023, when the Pennridge Region Police Department received a report of two girls wandering outside their home at Green Top Trailer Park in Sellersville, breaking into an abandoned trailer and taking items. Once there, authorities found that seven children, six girls and one boy, were living in filthy conditions surrounded by animals, that none of them had received a formal education, that six of the children were “clinically malnourished” and many of them were ill or otherwise in need of care, that two had tested positive for COVID-19, two had “under-served renal function,” three had “fever and […] Acute viral syndrome,” several with “poor vision,” and one with a “dangerous abscess in the mouth” and “13 visible holes.”

“Over the next week, it became clear that none of the seven children had any formal education and all lacked basic skills. Some of the children did not know their date of birth. Four of the children suffer from speech impediments,” investigators said. “All of the children have difficulty reading, writing and spelling. They all exhibited social anxiety and stated that they do not like being in public or around other people.”

After speaking with the wandering girls, police called the Robertsons and the parents arrived at the scene within half an hour. When the parents arrived, the affidavit states, they agreed to let police look around the apartment.

“Crystal Robertson stated that they consumed so much food that she had to lock the refrigerator because they were 'stealing' everything and referred to the children as 'garbage chutes with legs,'” the affidavit states. “When officers entered the trailer, they found the refrigerator locked with a bike lock. The interior of the trailer was also obviously in poor condition and in disarray.”

JV1, a 16-year-old girl, “looked unkempt” when she left her room at her father's request, cops said. The girl's father reportedly told police the teenager was his last daughter, when in reality he had three other daughters and a son.

The authorities then described the shocking conditions in the house. Among other things, the parents' bed was surrounded by animal cages.

“The room where Shane and Crystal slept had a bed in the middle surrounded by several animal cages. The bedsheets appeared to have not been washed in several weeks/months. There were pieces of trash on the floor and holes in the walls,” court documents state. “The back bedroom next to Shane and Crystal's bedroom was blocked off by a broken washing machine. This room had no door and was cluttered with dirty clothes and trash on the floor.”

“In the third bedroom, there was feces on the floor in front of the entrance. In the middle of the room was a dirty mattress with a dirty blanket on top. Your sworn witness also found feces on the blanket when photographing this room,” the affidavit continues. “This room also contained approximately two dozen rats, housed in two different cages.”

Police claimed they did not find any cleaning supplies in the house, which was contaminated with animal feces.

“The bathroom also had no soap, toothpaste or other hygiene products for the residents of the house,” police said. “The cabinets were in very poor condition, the oven looked like it had never been cleaned.”

The trailer was in such a dilapidated condition that Crystal Robertson “fell through the floor” in front of her bedroom door a few months earlier, according to her affidavit to investigators.

Investigators also found “two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads and a 4-foot-long reptile named a tegu, along with about two dozen rats” in the house, the documents say.

Given the children's malnutrition and the conspicuous lack of food in the family's locked refrigerator, authorities claimed the Robertsons treated their animals better than their children – and Common Pleas Court Judge Charissa J. Liller agreed, calling them “two of the worst parents I have ever seen in my life.”

“It is appalling that you and your seven children live in these conditions,” the judge said when announcing the verdict, according to the prosecutor's office. “You treated your animals better than your children. You kept them in cages like animals, but you didn't treat them as well.”

Prosecutors emphasized that Crystal Robertson created a TikTok account for a tegu named Boudin and that she fed the lizard “chunks of salmon” in videos while her children were neglected.

“In another video, she was brushing the lizard's teeth. In others, the lizard was dressed up and visiting the Easter Bunny,” prosecutors noted.

Prosecutors said the Robertsons put themselves and their animals ahead of their children's welfare, and while the “psychological effects” of that “will last a lifetime,” the children are doing better now that they are no longer in their trailer and in the care of Bucks County Child and Youth Social Services.

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Parents from “House of Horror” must go to prison for endangering seven children

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