Parents charged with child endangerment

CASPER (WNE) — The parents of six kids face charges of child endangerment for failing to maintain a clean and healthy living space, according to charging documents filed in circuit court.

Mariah Dieriex, born 1991, and Miranda Sodders, born 1992, each face six charges of child endangerment after Wyoming Department of Family Services agents visited their home.

Six children, some of whom were biological and some of whom were adopted, were in the couple’s custody.

The visit, which occurred on March 25, was part of a six-month-long, ongoing DFS case plan regarding the cleanliness of the home and its occupants, including four dogs. Dieriex and Sodders were put on the DFS plan following their eviction from a prior rental residence.

Upon entering the 11th Street home, Officer Darren Douglas found a “large puddle” of urine on the hardwood floor that was being soaked up by a combination of the kids’ art and homework.

Investigators found “large puddles of urine and dog feces” throughout the home, including in the children’s bedrooms, according to the filing.

At one point, “both Mariah and Miranda actively [picked] up the feces and threw it to the corners of the room, essentially to clear a path” for the agent. When prompted, the couple said the feces was from their dogs.

In one bedroom belonging to a child, Douglas says he found a queen bed with no sheets, pillows or blankets and a bedside table with a single lamp that was “smeared” with feces. In other rooms belonging to the children — six in total — Douglas found more beds without bedding and more feces in varying stages of decomposition.

The entire home smelled of urine and feces and was infested with cockroaches, flies and gnats, Douglas said in the affidavit.

Following their parents’ arrests, the children were placed into protective custody, the affidavit said.

This story was published on March 29, 2025.