Girl's Slaying Magnifies Apartments' Problems

INDIANAPOLIS -- The death of a 3-year-old girl has brought scrutiny to the north-side apartment complex where the child lived in filth with her mother and mother's boyfriend, who were charged with murder.

TaJanay Bailey's death earlier this week raised concerns about Phoenix apartments and the child welfare system in Marion County, 6News' Cheryl Jackson reported.

On Friday, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi visited the apartment complex, near 38th Street and North Sherman Drive, and called the conditions there "unlivable."

Police said the apartment where TaJanay lived with her mother, Charity Bailey, and Lawrence Green, was infested with roaches and mice.

"It's always been like that," said one woman, who didn't want to be identified. "It took that little girl to get killed for you all to actually want to do something."

Residents told 6News that negative attention provoked apartment management to make some changes.

"They just came in here," the woman said. "They did the fire extinguishers and the inspections."

Just outside the complex, a "peace in the streets" sign provides a stark reminder of trouble in the immediate neighborhood, and just how pervasive the problem is.

"Shot, stabbed -- somebody got cut up real bad, and my kids just happened to be here to see it, and then one guy got shot about two weeks ago," the woman said.

Residents told 6News that people lived with broken windows and generally shoddy condition inside their apartments.

Another woman who didn't want to be identified said a toilet in an upstairs apartment leaks into her home.

"It leaks through my whole house," the woman said. "It leaks from the window all the way over here into the closet."

Trash and standing water litter many laundry rooms at the complex. Residents told 6News that poor conditions have persisted for more than a year.

Brizzi, mayor-elect Greg Ballard and several ministers toured the apartment complex and are considering possible solutions to the crime problem and the dilapidation of the property, Jackson reported.