(Memphis) Some are calling her the worst mom in east Memphis.
She is a convicted prostitute with six kids and people say she doesn’t take care of any of them.
We got calls about Lela Dillard from people who are concerned about her children.
We called the Department of Child Services we did not get a call back.
Several people contacted us about these children saying they deserve a better life.
“I don`t remember,” said Nine-Year-Old Kyrsten Harden.
Harden doesn’t remember the last time she saw her mom because she has been cared for by someone else since she was three months old.
“We love her and we provide for her,” said Renee Keener.
Dillard, her real mom, left Kyrsten at Keener’s house and never came back.
“I was three years old that was the last time I saw her but I haven`t seen her since,” said Harden.
People tell News Channel 3 they aren’t worried about Kyrsten.
They are concerned for Dillard’s five other children.
“If it weren’t for Bubba taking care of the kids, she would sell them,” said Neighbor Thomas Arnold.
Dillard is a convicted prostitute and known drug addict in southeast Memphis.
Most of her children live her with ex-boyfriend, James Lipford, on the same street on which people say she prostitutes.
We were talking to Dillard’s 13-year-old daughter when she came out of, what neighbors call, a known drug house.
“Lela! Lela!”
A group of people, including her daughter, called her name but she didn’t turn around.
We followed her to another house.
“We heard that your kids aren’t being taken care of,” said Reporter Sabrina Hall.
She closed the door in our face.
“He takes care of those kids,” said Neighbor Ronald Arnold, about Bubba.
Bubba says he does the best he can.
“They can`t get no better,” said Lipford. “They get love. That`s all they need.”
But some say his house is no place to raise kids.
“Would you show us in the house?” asked Hall.
“ No,” said Lipford. “I am not going to let you inside of my house.”
His place is six miles away from Kyrsten’s.
“She means the world to me,” said her adopted mom, Keener.
She’s a young girl who doesn’t know her siblings and has never really met her mom.
“It would be nice to see her for a moment and to see some of my brothers and my sisters too,” said Kyrsten.
We were told DCS checks on the children a lot but people who’ve contacted us say they want DCS to step-in and help give the children a better life.
