Tulsa Couple Arrested After Officers Find 4 Kids Living In ‘Deplorable Conditions’

Tulsa Police arrested a couple accused of child neglect after officers said four children were living in deplorable conditions.

Police say the Department of Human Services went to the Tulsa home over the weekend to investigate and found four children all under 10 years old, who were filthy and surrounded by rotten food and trash.

Investigators said a dirty home doesn't always mean child neglect, but officers say they found Josh Reifendifer and Carina Nowlin passed out in a back bedroom, with drugs all over.

Police said when they first went into the home, they found a toddler with a soiled diaper that hadn't been changed in hours and three other kids who were all dirty. Police found the two suspects and another man all asleep in the back of the house and they were very hard to wake up.

They said they found marijuana pipes, a meth pipe, a loaded syringe and other drug paraphernalia where Riefendifer and Nowlin were sleeping. Police said Reifendifer also has a current arrest warrant.

"It's significant because it teaches those children that it's okay and it's not. It puts them in danger, it puts their health in danger, puts their safety in danger,” Sergeant Mark Kraft with the Tulsa Police Child Crisis Unit said. “It's just not a good thing to do around kids. It’s not a good thing to do period, but certainly not around your children.”  

Records show Reifendifer has spent time in prison since 2013. He served two years of a six-year sentence for drugs and was released in 2018. Since then, he was given a deferred sentence and ordered to attend drug court, but records show he’s now accused of violating that sentence.