Inside apartment 46, at a northwest Houston complex, police say they discovered nothing short of squalor.

“There was nowhere you could look where there was not roaches,” said HPD Investigator Catheryn Garner-Sanders.

Not only roaches.

But investigators say drugs, too.

Now, Tammy Lynn Melton and Emanuel Jones face felony charges after four of their eight children tested positive for cocaine.

“We think that the children just somehow must have gotten a hold of the parents' cocaine. Because the children who tested positive were two 11-month-old twins. A one-and-a-half-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year old,” said Estella Olguin with Children’s Protective Services.

A nurse at Texas Children’s made the discovery when she was treating one of the 11-month-old twin boys for a broken arm.

She was alarmed the baby wasn’t crying in pain.

HCSO

Tammy Lynn Melton and Emanuel Jones

A test revealed the 11-month-old had cocaine in his system.

Records show that CPS has investigated the parents at least five previous times.

In 2002, doctors suggested CPS watch the mother because she appeared so young and inexperienced.

Months later, she was caught giving inappropriate food to the baby.

In 2005, CPS looked into her again for using cocaine to induce labor.

Her children were then given to their grandmother.

Three weeks ago, Houston police told CPS about the children living in the roach-infested apartment -- grandmother and all.

“Every time we would go out to the apartment, they were not there,” said Olguin.

CPS couldn’t find them until the child ended up at the hospital.

Finally, custody was revoked.

Houston attorney Randy Burton, who founded Justice for Children, believes CPS should have intervened before Houston police finally had to. “CPS did clearly drop the ball,” he said. “If they hadn’t intervened when they did, I’m confident within months, we would have seen a dead child.”

All eight of the couple’s children are now in foster homes.

The mother, Tammy Lynn Melton, is in the process of posting bond and leaving jail.

The children’s father is still locked up here though.

Both deny giving their children cocaine or physically abusing them.

If convicted, they could face two to ten years in prison.