Pennsylvania State Police say they arrested a man who was allegedly endangering the welfare of three small children inside an Upper Bucks County hotel Wednesday. (FILE PHOTO)
Three children who authorities say were living in squalor at the Quality Inn in Milford Township near Quakertown were rescued by state police Wednesday night, after troopers were initially called to the scene for a report of a woman who had overdosed on drugs.
Police said they were dispatched to the 1900 block of John Fries Highway (Rt. 663) at 7:27 p.m. Jan. 12, for a report of a woman who had overdosed. Once on scene, police said the woman was awake, alert and admitted to using drugs. She was subsequently transported to St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus for evaluation.
The name of the woman is not being released as she has not been charged in connection with the incident.
Investigators then spoke with the occupant of the room, identified as 44-year-old David Alan Savage of Quakertown, who police described as intoxicated and actively drinking a beer.
Savage told police that the woman had been staying with him in the room along with three small children, according to the criminal complaint filed in Bucks County district court.
The relationship between the children, Savage and the woman who overdosed has not been released.
Police said the children were living in a “filthy environment,” lacked full clothing and hadn’t been bathed due to the fact that the room’s bathtub was filled with miscellaneous personal items. Additionally, food and vomit were observed inside the room; detritus which carried such a noxious odor that police could smell it outside the room with the door closed, according to the complaint.
When asked about the vomit, Savage allegedly told police it had been inside the room for “a couple days” and that he hadn’t had time to clean it up. The report added that there were empty beer bottles all over the room, a strong odor of fecal matter within the room and that the youngest child was wearing a urine-soaked diaper.
All three children were removed from the scene and placed in protective custody, police said.
Savage was subsequently taken into custody and charged with three felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child. As of Friday he was being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing for Savage is scheduled to be held Tuesday, March 1 at 1 p.m. before Bucks County District Judge Regina Armitage, according to the court docket filed in the case. The docket did not list an attorney for Savage as of Friday.
A media relations representative for Quality Inn released the following statement Friday regarding the arrest that took place at the hotel in Milford Township: “We are aware of the events at the independently-owned-and-operated Quality Inn in Quakertown. We are in communication with the owner of the franchised hotel, and due to the ongoing police investigation, we are unable to provide further comment on the incident at this time.”
As of Friday, a request for comment from the hotel’s general manager had not been returned.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
