Squatting couple arrested after children found locked in a room, eating a mattress

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A couple accused of squatting in a Bronx public housing apartment allegedly abused and neglected their two young daughters so gravely that the starving girls were forced to eat their filthy foam mattress, according to prosecutors.

The girls’ ages three and four years old were bruised, naked, and covered in feces when police and city workers finally rescued them from a “house of horrors” at NYCHA’s Mitchel Houses, said the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

Stephanie Grabowski, their mom, and her partner, Mark Russell, have been charged with a slew of criminal charges, including kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and child endangerment.

“The defendants allegedly kept these little girls in a house of horrors,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement.

“They illegally occupied the apartment and left the children alone without food or clothing,” said Clark.

Grabowski, 40, and Russell, 45, were arrested after cops and city workers went  in to clear out the apartment but instead walked into a nightmare.

According to prosecutors the filthy apartment smelled of urine and feces and had very little food, clothing, amenities, or even diapers for Grabowski’s young daughters.

Officers said a rope was attached to the doorknob of the bedroom door allegedly to l keep the girls locked inside.

The children were examined at Jacobi Medical Center and “were observed to have significant bruising and marks in various stages of heating,” in addition to “rashes throughout their bodies,” the DA’s office said in a press release.

The girls also had “difficulties walking, standing and speaking,” said prosecutors.

Grabowski and Russell are both being held at Rikers Island since their arrests.

$150,000 cash or a $400,000 bond for Grabowski

$100,000 cash or a $200,000 bond for Russell.