Crystal Roberston, Shane Robertson (Pennridge Regional Police Department)
The mother and father of seven children, ranging in age from 4 to 16 years old, were sentenced to prison in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and ordered not to contact their kids until they turn 18 and “only with approval of a court-appointed therapist” months after pleading guilty in a trailer house of horrors case, where caged animals were treated better and one creature, an exotic Tegu lizard, was fed salmon on its own TikTok account as all but one of the kids were malnourished, prosecutors say.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, Shane Robertson, 48, and Crystal Robertson, 38, will go to state prison for the next eight to 16 years in the felony child endangerment and animal neglect case, a prosecution that had included allegations of assault.
The case began in April 2023, when the Pennridge Regional Police Department received a report about two girls wandering outside of their Green Top Trailer Park home in Sellersville entering an abandoned trailer and taking items.
Once there, authorities found that seven children, six girls and one boy, were living in filthy conditions surrounded by animals, that none of them had received formal educations, that six of the kids were “clinically malnourished” and that many of them were sick or otherwise in need of care, with two testing positive for COVID-19, two having “low kidney function,” three with “fevers and […] Acute Viral Syndrome,” several with “poor eyesight,” and one with a “dangerous abscess in his mouth” and “13 visible cavities.”
“Over the next week, it was learned that none of the seven children had any formal education, and all lacked basic knowledge. Some of the children did not know their own birthdates. Four of the children suffer from speech impediments,” investigators said. “All of the children struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. They all exhibited social anxiety and disclosed that they did not like being in public or around other people.”
After speaking with the wandering girls, cops said they called up the Robertsons and the parents arrived at the scene within a half hour. When the parents got there, the affidavit said, they agreed to let the officers look around the residence.
“Crystal Robertson stated that they were going through so much food that she had to put a lock on the refrigerator because they were ‘stealing’ everything and referred to the children as ‘garbage disposals with legs,”” the affidavit said. “Upon entry into the trailer, officers found the refrigerator to be locked shut with a bicycle lock. The interior of he trailer was also in obvious disrepair and disarray.”
JV1, a 16-year-old girl, “appeared unkempt” when she emerged from her room at her father’s request, cops said. The girl’s father allegedly told police that the teen was the last daughter he had, when in fact he had three more daughters and a son.
From here, authorities detailed the shocking conditions found in the home, including that the parents’ bed was surrounded by animal cages.
“The room that Shane and Crystal slept in had a bed in the middle of the room with several animal cages surrounding it. The sheets on the bed did not appear to have been washed in several weeks/months. On the floor were items of garbage and the walls had holes in them,” court documents said. “The back bedroom adjacent to Shane and Crystal’s bedroom was blocked off with a broken washing machine. This room did not have a door and was cluttered with dirty clothing and garbage on the floor.”
“The third bedroom had feces on the floor in front of the entrance. A filthy mattress lay at the center of the room with a dirty blanket on it. Your Affiant found feces on the blanket as well while photographing this room,” the affidavit continued. “This room also housed approximately two dozen rats that were located in two different cages.”
Cops claimed to find no cleaning products in the home filled with animal feces.
“The bathroom also did not have soap, toothpaste, or any other hygienic products for the occupants of the home,” police said. “The cabinets were in very bad shape the oven appeared as if it had never been cleaned.”
The trailer home was in such a dilapidated state that Crystal Robertson “fell through the floor” in front of her bedroom door a few months prior, according to the affidavit’s account of what she told investigators.
Investigators also found “two dogs, two turtles, two rabbits, snakes, toads, and a four-foot reptile known as a Tegu inside the home, along with the approximately two dozen rats,” documents said.
Given the malnourishment of the children and the noticeable lack of food in the family’s locked up refrigerator, authorities asserted that the Robertsons treated their animals better than their children — and Common Pleas Judge Charissa J. Liller agreed, calling them “two of the worst parents I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“It is appalling that you would live in these conditions with your seven children,” the judge said at sentencing, according to the DA’s office. “You treated your animals better than you treated your children. You kept them caged up like animals, but you weren’t treating them as good.”
Prosecutors emphasized that Crystal Robertson created a TikTok account for a Tegu named Boudin and that she fed the lizard “chunks of salmon” in videos as her kids were neglected.
“In another video, she was brushing the lizard’s teeth. In others, the lizard was dressed in costumes and visiting the Easter Bunny,” prosecutors noted.
Prosecutors said that the Robertsons chose themselves and their animals over their children’s well-being, and while the “the psychological effects” of this “will last a lifetime,” the kids are doing better now that they out are of the trailer home and in the custody of Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services.
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