BLACKSTONE — Investigators found the remains of three infants inside a squalid, vermin-infested home here on Thursday, two weeks after child welfare officials removed four children from the same address to protect them from suspected abuse or neglect, authorities said. 
 
 A woman identified as Erika Murray, a 31-year-old resident of the house, was arrested Thursday night and will be arraigned Friday on a witness intimidation charge, as well as additional unspecified charges stemming from living conditions in the residence, police and prosecutors said. 
 
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 Authorities would not say whether Murray is related to any of the children who had been living in the house. 
 
 Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. told reporters near the condemned home at 23 St. Paul St. that the genders and ages of the deceased infants have not been determined, nor have the causes of their deaths. He refused to say if authorities knew the whereabouts of the parents on Thursday evening. He also said that no one has been charged with committing a homicide. 
 
 “What we know is that we have three infants that have been found deceased at this residence,” Early said. “The house is filled with vermin. We have flies, we have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas as much as a foot-and-a-half to two feet high. 
 
 “The house is in deplorable condition.” 
 
 He said police were first called to the residence, which is within walking distance of police and fire headquarters on the same street, about two weeks ago after a child living in the home told a neighbor that one of the other children had been crying. 
 
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 The crying child, who is 6 months old, was found covered in feces, Early said, leading the neighbor to call police. 
 
 Early said four children, including the 6-month-old, a 3-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 13-year-old, were then taken from the home by the state Department of Children and Families. He did not explain the lag between the children being taken from the home and Thursday’s chilling discovery. 
 
 Early’s office said State Police detectives arrived at the home on Wednesday night and found the remains during their investigation. Early said during the briefing Thursday that officials were continuing to search for additional remains and expected to be working at the home for the next few days. 
 
 In a statement, Cayenne Isaksen, a DCF spokeswoman, said the agency had no previous contact with the family until two weeks ago. 
 
 “The children are currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families,” she said. “DCF has never had an open case with this family and learned about this situation through a 51A report,’’ which details suspected abuse or neglect of a child. 
 
 Isaksen said that once DCF received the report, the agency notified the district attorney’s office and that DCF is “working in collaboration with law enforcement to investigate the report.” 
 
 It was not immediately clear on Thursday night whether the four children in DCF custody were related to each other or to the deceased infants, or even how many adults had been living in the residence. 
 
 “We have to ascertain who was living in the house” as part of the investigation, Early said. 
 
 Timothy Connolly, a spokesman for Early, also declined to comment when asked about the parents of the children but said officials expect to provide an update on the case on Friday. 
 
 Blackstone is south of Worcester, near Rhode Island. Neighbors on the leafy street listened in stunned silence as Early laid out the details of the discovery. The residents later expressed shock and outrage. 
 
 “It’s deplorable,” said Marilynn Soucy, 68. “It’s horrible, and I hope somebody suffers for it. I can’t picture hurting a child.” 
 
 She said before Early’s briefing that she thought a woman and her boyfriend lived in the home with a girl and boy. Soucy said she would often see the boy playing outside. 
 
 “He always had a red shirt on,” she said. 
 
 When state welfare officials took custody of the children, the boy “was in the car of DCF and did not want to come out,” she said. “He was happy to be in there.” 
 
 Soucy added that on the same day that DCF took custody of the children, she saw the woman who lived in the home being led to the police station. Soucy said the woman did not appear distressed and was “just walking normal.” 
 
 Investigators in protective body gear were seen on Thursday coming and going from the house, which was shielded by two blue tents set up in the street. 
 
 Authorities had set up large spotlights to allow them to work throughout the night. 
 
 Another neighborhood resident, Denise Haughn, 49, was shocked even before Early confirmed the gruesome discovery, as the police presence grew steadily heavier during the day and rumors swirled about children living in awful conditions. 
 
 “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened in town, that I know of, in recent history,” Haughn said. “This is beyond crazy.” 
 
 Another neighbor, Dave Villandry, 38, struggled to contain his emotions after Early announced that three infants had been found dead. 
 
 “That’s just absolutely horrifying,” he said, adding that he smelled a foul odor whenever he walked by the house. “This is brutal. Nothing like this ever happens around here. This is a quiet little town. Are you kidding me? Three dead babies?” ||||| The remains of three infants were found inside a vermin-infested home in Blackstone, Worcester Country District Attorney Joseph. D. Early Jr. said Wednesday night. 
 
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 Early said the investigation was still in its early stages, and said the house was in squalor and has been condemned. 
 
 Photos: House of horrors had dead infants, vermin 
 
 Blackstone police said a suspect is in custody, and she has been charged in connection to the squalid condition of the home. 
 
 Police said she will appear in Uxbridge District Court on Friday. 
 
 Officials with the Worcester County District Attorney's Office said Erika Murray, 31, will be arraigned on intimidation of a witness and other charges on Friday morning in Uxbridge District Court. 
 
 Nobody has been charged in connection to the deaths of three infants. 
 
 Massachusetts State Police, the medical examiner and the Blackstone Police Department are still at the scene investigating. 
 
 Early said investigators would be at the home throughout the night and for the next few days. 
 
 The genders of the infants who were found inside the home at 23 St. Paul St. have yet to be determined, as well as the manner and causes of death, Early said. 
 
 Crews entering the home have had to wear protective clothing and protective gear, and a decontamination process has been set up for crews leaving the home, Early said. 
 
 "The house is filled with vermin," he said. "We have flies. We have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas, as much as a foot-and-a-half to two-feet high. The house is in a deplorable condition." 
 
 The remains of several cats and a dog were also found inside the home, officials said. 
 
 Neighbors said the smell coming from the home was sickening. 
 
 "You could definitely tell that it wasn't clean in there. Even in the dead of winter, the window would be open, and when you walked by on the street, you could definitely smell the house -- just dirtiness, definitely wasn't normal," neighbor John Deane said. 
 
 "It's a sad day," Blackstone Police Department Chief Atstupenas said. "At this point here, it's under investigation and I want to thank everyone for their patience at this time." 
 
 Early said two weeks ago someone made a complaint to the Department of Children and Families, and four children were removed from the home -- a 6-month-old, a 3-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old. 
 
 Neighbor Christine Moran said she didn't even know about the baby living in the house. 
 
 "I'm shocked," she said. "In seven years I've never even seen her pregnant. The only thing I ever saw was her daughter and son. I can't believe it. I never even heard a baby cry." 
 
 The children are now in the custody of the DCF, officials said. 
 
 Atstupenas said there is no danger to the public and thanked the community for their continued patience. ||||| Story highlights Lawyer says squalor concealed children from father for years 
 
 Lawyer for the woman arrested says she is the mother 
 
 Three infants were discovered dead in squalid Massachusetts home 
 
 Police had to search the house in hazmat suits 
 
 It was a shocking and gruesome discovery: three dead infants found in a Massachusetts home so squalid that police officers had to search it in hazmat suits. 
 
 Now, days later, as investigators continue to search through what the Worcester County District Attorney's Office describes as the home's "deplorable conditions (such as) massive insect infestation, mounds of used diapers and feces," a picture is beginning to emerge of the family that lived inside. 
 
 And it's a picture so deranged, so unfathomable to a reasonable mind, that even a lawyer for the accused calls the situation "completely inexplicable." 
 
 Erika Murray was arraigned September 12 on a bevy of charges stemming from the discovery of the dead infants at her home the day before, but she has not been charged in their deaths. The 31-year-old pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing an out of wedlock fetal death, two counts of permitting substantial injury to a child, intimidation of a witness, cruelty to an animal and violating an abuse prevention order, according to Tim Connolly, a district attorney spokesman. 
 
 Whether or not Murray is the mother is not known by authorities for certain at this point, but her attorney assumes that she is. "My expectation is that it will be confirmed that they were indeed hers," Keith Halpern told CNN. 
 
 Murray lived in the now-condemned single family home with her longtime boyfriend, Ray Rivera, and the couple's children. Just how many children lived with them in the vermin-infested 1,150-square-foot home, however, depends on which parent you ask: of the four living children that the state removed from the home on August 28, Murray told investigators that Rivera, 38, only knew about two of them. 
 
 The other two -- a 3 year old and an infant, according to Halpern -- were apparently not only born in secret but lived hidden from their father amid mountains of garbage under the same roof. 
 
 Rivera also "presumably" did not know about the ones that had died, at least according to the account Murray has told authorities, Halpern said. 
 
 "It is a mystery to me how Mr. Rivera could have failed to notice (the) numerous pregnancies (of) the woman with whom he shared a bed," said Halpern. "It's a mystery to me how he could have failed to realize that there were two children living under the same roof as him, and he didn't know about it." 
 
 CNN was unable to reach Rivera or members of his family Sunday evening. He has not been charged with any crime, and there is no public record of physical abuse. 
 
 'Prisoner of her own fear' 
 
 Halpern said that while his client's explanation "is not based in reality," the situation Murray came to be in was the result of fear, not malice. "She was terrified of the pregnancies being discovered," said Halpern. "She was terrified of the two younger children being discovered. Why? I don't know the answer to that." 
 
 Whether based in reality or not, Halpern said Murray was "a prisoner of her own fear" and suggested it was that fear that explains the three infants found dead in her home. "Try to imagine the state of mind of a woman who attempts to hide a pregnancy, go into labor and deliver children -- at least twice, but presumably five times -- on her own." 
 
 "I feel certain that she did not do anything to harm any of these children," he said. "I don't think there will be a determination that they were killed." 
 
 Though Halpern said he has yet to consult with a pathologist, he said it is not clear if they were ever alive to begin with or if they were all stillborn. 
 
 Abuse suspected in 2007 
 
 The state's removal of the four living children at the home last month was the result of the filing of what's called a 51A report in Massachusetts, according to Alec Loftus, a spokesman for the state's office of Health and Human Services. A 51A can be filed by any citizen with reason to believe that a child has been abused or neglected. 
 
 This was not the first time a 51A had been filed when it came to that home, according to a Massachusetts Department of Children and Families spokeswoman. Cayenne Isaksen said such a report was previously received in 2007, but that "it was unsupported and therefore no case was opened." 
 
 For now, Isaksen said DCF has Murray's four children in its care and is focused on "ensuring (their) safety and well-being and providing them with the proper medical care, support and services they need," she said. Connolly said that the family caring for them has no public statement to make at this time. 
 
 Murray's case was adjourned to October 14. Investigators, meanwhile, remain at the scene digging through the squalor. 
 
 "Our investigation will continue for quite some time," said Joseph Early, the Worcester County District Attorney. 
 
 Dad accused of slaying five kids had history with social services
– The bodies of three infants were found in a now-condemned, vermin-infested Massachusetts home yesterday, two weeks after the state removed four children from the place, the Boston Globe reports. "We do not have the genders of the infants yet, we don't have the manner and cause of death," District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. tells WCVB. He went on to describe a deplorable scene: "The house is filled with vermin. We have flies, we have bugs. We have used diapers, in some areas as much as a foot-and-a-half to 2 feet high." Several pets were also found dead. Resident Erika Murray, 31, will appear in court today on charges related to the condition of the house, but her connection to the children found living in the home hasn't been revealed. A rep for the Department of Children and Families says four children, ages 13, 10, 3, and 6 months, were taken from the Blackstone home after a call from a neighbor, who was told by one of the children that the baby wouldn't stop crying; the 6-month-old was found covered in feces, the AP reports. Authorities now "have to ascertain who was living in the house," Early says, noting investigators will be working at the home in hazmat suits for several days, searching for more remains. A neighbor says she believes a woman and her boyfriend lived at the home with two children, who sometimes played outside. "In seven years I've never even seen her pregnant," another neighbor adds. "I never even heard a baby cry."