The kids were very tight knit but I have also seen secret keeping as a family glue.
The filth was awful but the kids were exposed to this as well: “In his frustration, police say Tim got drunk and hit his wife. He punched holes in the walls…”
The kids in the family were split into two groups but they were with family members. None of them were placed with strangers. “…The kids now live with Amy’s sister and her mother. They live across the street from each other, within a block of their old home. They still go to the same schools, play on the same streets…But Presson noted in one of the interviews, the kids seemed relieved, now able to bathe and do their homework and go to the bathroom with the door shut…”
Foster care is tough on kids. My husband’s aunts and uncles were in the system after their mother died, the dad was in prison, and my father in law was fighting in the Korean War. They talk about how hard it was. They had no alternative. These kids had family members ready to step up.