Photo: Blervis, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

DAYTON, Ohio — Prosecutors have approved misdemeanor child endangerment charges against the mother of five children found living alone in a boarded-up Dayton home with no food, no power and no adults present, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Friday.

The children, ages 4 to 12, were discovered Oct. 1 in a boarded-up property designated “nuisance abated” in the 3500 block of Delphos Avenue. A property manager conducting a welfare check called Dayton police around 12:30 p.m., according to WHIO/CNN Newsource. Officers found the home empty of adults, with no food and no electricity.

Dayton Police took the children to a local hospital for evaluation before they were placed in the custody of Montgomery County Children’s Services. The Enquirer’s latest update reports that four of the children, ages 8 to 13, remain in the agency’s temporary custody, while the 4-year-old has been placed with a relative.

The children’s mother told the Enquirer she had been hospitalized with liver issues and believed her 15-year-old son was watching the younger children, she said in an Oct. 6 interview. The teen was not in the home; he was later located at school and also placed in children’s services custody.

Officials said the children are being kept together as the case moves forward.