Day 2 of ‘House of Horrors’ trial in Worcester

Day 2 of the trial against a Blackstone mother accused of neglecting her children, and killing two infants continued Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court.

Testimony continued with police describing a filthy home, animals in poor health, and child care workers describing the condition of Murray’s four children when they were taken away from her in 2014.

Murray showed spurts of emotions in court but during most of the testimony she was sitting stone-faced as DCF officials described deplorable conditions inside her home on St. Paul Street.

Testimony revealed that there was trash all over the floor, feces everywhere, and slime coming off dirty dishes that gave Walter McClain, a social worker with DCF, an eye infection that needed medical treatment.

McClain said the home had a distinct odor inside, and two of Murray’s four children showed signs of neglect.

“[Murray] did not know the children’s date of birth because I believe they were born in her home,” McClain said during testimony. “They gave [Murray’s daughter] a bath and the foster mother said ‘I’ve never seen a child with no muscle tone.”

McClain was on scene when DCF informed her that they will be taking her children into custody.

“It looked like it didn’t phase her one way or the other if we were going to take the [children],” McClain said.

McClain also added that when he was carrying one of Murray’s children outside the home he said there was something “crawling inside the ear of the child,” but McClain could not say for sure if it was a maggot.

Days after DCF took custody of the children, Murray met with investigators from the organization including Catherine Francy, a former DCF investigator.

When the four children were taken into custody, testimony from Francy revealed that DCF thought Murray’s two youngest children, a six-month old and a three-year-old, were neglected and they showed signs of developmental delay.

“I remember her presenting very irritable, non-engaging, with [a colleague] and I,” Francy said. “Wasn’t able to talk.”

Francy went on to testify that when she met with Murray about the custody issue, the Blackstone mother kept referring to one of her daughters as “it.”

But during cross examination, Murray’s lawyer Keith Halpern pressed the former DCF investigator about the condition of Murray’s two oldest children.

“DCF did not learn of any problems of any kind… with respect to [the two children’s] health history, their school history,” Halpern asked.

“I guess I would say yes then,” Francy replied, pointing to the fact that there were no issues with medical history, or school truancy issues based on DCF interviews with school officials.

After recess, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hodgens called Dr. Peter Sell to the stand, a pediatrician at UMass Memorial who evaluated both of Murray’s youngest daughters when they were taken into DCF custody.

Dr. Sell said when he first met Murray’s three year-old daughter she “folded in half” when he tried examining her.

“I did my best to give her space to make her feel comfortable with me,” Dr. Sell said. “[She had] poor muscle tone, pale skin, yellow nails, extensive diaper rash.”

Dr. Sell also said that “it seemed that she didn’t do a whole lot of walking. [She] didn’t act how I would expect a three year old to act.”

But the next time he saw the child, 10 months after being in foster care, Dr. sell said “she seemed like a completely different child.”

Dr. Sell also said that while he was examining Murray’s two youngest children, he had a difficult time accessing medical records for them, including their birth records.

Dr. Sell said his concern was “profound neglect,” but admitted the two children were being tested for other possible diagnosis. 

During cross examination, Halpern went after Dr. Sell’s credibility, by pointing out an article he authored in the medical community that warns pediatricians not to jump to conclusions when dealing with child abuse.

In the article, Halpern pointed out that a misdiagnosis of child abuse by Dr. Sell had a child taken away from their family because the child had broken ribs. 

During testimony, Dr. Sell said that in the end that particular case he mentioned in his article had a rare copper deficiency, causing those bones to break.

Halpern moved back into the case against Murray by pointing out that the children showed signs of autism, which Dr. Sell agreed with.

The trial is expected to pick up on Thursday.