3 children, animals found in Harrodsburg house ‘not suitable for anyone to live in’

HARRODSBURG, Ky. (FOX 56) — Three people were charged on Wednesday night after a search warrant led officers with the Harrodsburg Police Department to a house that was unsuitable for anyone to live in, where three kids, an adult with a learning disability, along with dogs and cats, were found living inside.

Court documents show that around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, officers were dispatched to the 500 block of Allah Avenue in response to reports of possible child neglect.

Three children and an adult with a mental disability were reportedly found living inside, along with three dogs and five cats. Officers said the state of the house made it “unsuitable to live in.”

“The floor was covered in feces and all surfaces were covered in garbage such as rotten food,” an arrest citation reads. “The refrigerator had a lock hanging from it and contained rotten food and cockroaches and none of the food I observed in the house was safe to eat.”

Authorities wrote that living there allegedly placed the three children at risk of serious disease or even death.

Amy Nichols, 30, Robert Ransdell, 38, and Matthew Hardin, 30, were each arrested.

Nichols was charged with:

• Three counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child under age 12
• Knowingly abusing an adult
• Eight counts of second-degree cruelty to animals

Hardin and Ransdell were each charged with:

• Three counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child under age 12—complicity
• Complicity in the abuse of an adult
• Eight counts of second-degree cruelty to animals—complicity

All three were lodged in the Mercer County Detention Center.

According to court documents, one of the children told Harrodsburg police that they allegedly didn’t have lunch or dinner and had only eaten cereal.

The child neglect investigation remains ongoing.