The girl outside the Dollar General looked like any other teenager cutting across a rural highway, until a closer look made it clear something was very wrong. Pale, unsteady on her feet and clearly alone, the 14-year-old had been surviving in a house so filthy and isolated that even seasoned deputies later struggled to describe it. The store worker who stopped what she was doing to check on the child did not know the full story, only that, as she later put it, the girl “needed some kind of help.”
What unfolded from that quick decision has now become one of the most disturbing child neglect cases to surface in MOBILE COUNTY, Ala, in years. Investigators say the teen had been left to fend for herself for nearly a year, sharing a decaying home with Seven dogs, one of them dead in a closet, while her mother and stepfather built a new life in Florida.
The moment a routine shift turned into a rescue
The Dollar General employee was working a regular shift when she noticed the teen stumbling along the road in front of the store, looking disoriented and alone. She later recalled that she could not shake the feeling that something was off, that this was not just a kid out for a walk, and that instinct pushed her to step outside and talk to the girl. That simple choice, to pause and pay attention instead of looking away, set off the chain of events that led to a full child abuse investigation and likely saved the teen from even worse harm, a point underscored in early reports describing the Disturbing allegations that followed.
Once the employee heard enough to realize the teen had been living alone, she called for help and stayed with the girl until first responders arrived. In later interviews, the worker said she kept replaying the same thought, that she “knew she needed some kind of help,” a line that has since become shorthand for the quiet alarm that finally brought the situation into public view. Coverage of the case has repeatedly highlighted how the girl’s appearance outside that Dollar General, and the worker’s decision to act, became the turning point in a story that had been hidden behind closed doors for months, a detail echoed in accounts of the Dollar General encounter.
A year alone in squalor with 7 dogs
By the time deputies reached the property, the picture that emerged was almost impossible to square with the girl’s age. Investigators say the juvenile had been living alone with 7 dogs for nearly one year after her mother and stepfather moved out of state and left her behind, a timeline laid out in detail in LOCAL reports that describe how a juvenile lived alone with 7 dogs for nearly one year. Inside the house, deputies found trash, feces and rotting food, conditions so extreme that one of the Seven dogs was discovered dead inside a closet while the others were thin and living in the same filth as the child. Officials have said it is still unclear whether any of the surviving animals will be able to stay with the teen, but they have been blunt that the mix of isolation, animal waste and lack of adult care could have made the difference between life and death, a warning reflected in accounts of the child who lived alone with 7 dogs.
Authorities say the girl’s mother, Marchelle Lynn Pertilla, and stepfather, Eugene Medrano, had moved to Florida for work, leaving the teen in the Alabama home with the animals and little else. According to investigators in MOBILE COUNTY, Ala, the pair allegedly kept in contact by phone but did not return to provide basic care, even as the house deteriorated and the girl, who has been described as having special needs, struggled to manage on her own. The case file now includes detailed allegations of a home “covered” in animal waste and trash, a description that matches accounts of a Florida Parents Arrested After Abandoning Teen for Nearly a Year in Feces Covered Alabama House By Chris Harris, and deputies have not minced words in calling the living conditions “filthy” and unfit for any child, a point reinforced in descriptions of the filthy conditions investigators say the 14-year-old victim endured.
From quiet neglect to criminal charges and hard questions
Once deputies pieced together how long the teen had been alone, the case shifted quickly from welfare check to criminal investigation. MOBILE COUNTY, Ala authorities say the girl’s mother and stepfather were tracked to Florida, where they were arrested on child abuse related charges after interviews and evidence suggested they had left the teen in the Alabama house for nearly a year while they lived and worked in Pensacola. Reports on the arrests describe how the pair, identified as Marchelle Lynn Pertilla and Eugene Medrano, were taken into custody after detectives documented the filth, the dead dog and the teen’s account of surviving largely on her own, details that line up with a narrative of a juvenile girl lived alone for nearly 1 year. Another account of the case frames it bluntly as Florida parents arrested after 14-year-old abandoned for months with dogs, underscoring how quickly the story has resonated far beyond the rural road where the girl was first spotted.
For the Dollar General employee at the center of it, the legal fallout is secondary to the image she cannot shake of the teen outside the store. In a televised interview, Our Dean Smith introduced the segment by noting that Jan had brought “Disturbing allegations” to light, then turned to Dean’s on-the-ground reporting about how the worker’s call set everything in motion, a sequence captured in a video titled Our Dean Smith has been looking into this and Dean you learned. The employee, identified in one report as Burch, said she has been praying for the girl since that day and that she keeps replaying their brief conversation, a sentiment echoed in coverage that quotes her saying, “I’ve been praying for her” and notes that her mom and stepdad went to the hospital Sunday and spoke with investigators, details that appear in an update on Burch Sunday and her concern for the girl. Other summaries of the case, including one that simply labels it LOCAL and notes that a juvenile lived alone with 7 dogs for nearly one year after her mother and stepfather left for Florida, have turned the story into a kind of shorthand for what happens when quiet neglect goes unchecked, a framing captured in the Child lived alone with 7 dogs nearly year coverage and in the way the Child has become a symbol of how much difference one watchful stranger can make.
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