While the exterior of a Schenectady, New York home seemed ordinary, its interior concealed a grim reality. Authorities described it as a “house of horrors,” where a tragic sequence of events led to the starvation death of a 5-year-old girl and the imprisonment of her 3-year-old brother in a cage.

On Friday, Robert S. Buskey, Jr., aged 35, confessed to second-degree murder concerning the death of his daughter, Charlotte Buskey, according to a press release by the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office.

Police were dispatched to the Elmer Avenue residence on April 14, 2024, following reports of an unresponsive child. Inside, they found a “deplorable” environment, including Buskey’s 3-year-old son confined in a cage within the living room. In the bedroom, they discovered Charlotte’s “emaciated” body, her eyes described as “sunken into her skull,” according to prosecutors.

The bedroom door had been locked from the outside. Investigations revealed that Charlotte suffered from “neglect and malnourishment for months,” despite “boxes of food” being stored just outside her door. Prosecutors stated that Buskey isolated his children from family and society, abstaining from medical care while indulging in drugs and video games to avoid “being bothered by his children.”

In a courtroom confession, Buskey admitted to a police officer, “I let my daughter die,” as reported by the Daily Gazette of Schenectady.

Charlotte’s tragic final days were spent in an old pack ‘n play, cramped in a fetal position, as she had long outgrown the makeshift bed.

“She had no food, no water, no contact with anyone, in a pack-n-play, left there to die, and she did,” prosecutors wrote.

An autopsy showed she was in a state of severe dehydration and “completely devoid of any food.”

In pleading guilty, Buskey admitted to a “depraved indifference to human life” and created a “grave risk of injury” that led to the death of his daughter.

“The charge of depraved murder is reserved for those individuals who have an utter disregard for the value of human life,” the press release stated. “It reflects a wicked, evil and inhuman state of mind as manifested by brutal, heinous and despicable acts, and it sums up Mr. Buskey’s conduct in this case.”

Both kids tested positive for cocaine. Buskey also pleaded guilty to criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child. He faces between 27 years and life in prison when he is sentenced on March 27.

District Attorney Robert M. Carney pointed out that Charlotte’s death was the area’s second kid to die in roughly a month under horrific circumstances.

Within the span of 36 days the community dealt with two horrific murders of small children. One, Halo Branton, an 11-month-old baby, was dropped into a drainage pit on the GE campus on March 9, 2024, and abandoned to die of hypothermia at the hands of her mother. On April, 14, 2024, police were called to the Elmer Avenue home of Robert Buskey to find his 5 year old child, Charlotte, whom he had entombed in her bedroom until she died of dehydration and starvation.  Neither of these parents may have intended to cause the death of their child, but both exhibited the utter indifference and wickedness necessary to be convicted of depraved mind murder. Like all children, these two innocents undoubtedly loved a parent who, in each case, couldn’t have cared less about them.

A jury found Halo’s mother guilty of murder and manslaughter last year.

Charlotte’s obituary said she loved princesses and “dressing up in beautiful outfits.”

“Her favorite thing to do was to blow and pop bubbles,” the obituary said. “She was a gentle soul with a kind heart that touched so many during her short time here on earth.”