SE Home Where Girls Found Slain Not Selling

After New Paint, 40% Reduction, It Goes to Auction

Only a hint of the horrible things that happened in the redbrick rowhouse on Sixth Street SE can be found in one of the second-floor bedrooms.

The door inside the tiny closet is a makeshift chalkboard. Black sketches in crayon or markers show the numbers 1 through 10 and the mathematical equation "2+2=4," with the 2s printed backward. There's a drawing of a cat, and of four chicken eggs, with one chicken breaking out of an egg.

Nearby, a scribbled phrase: "Yes I do love mom."

This is the house where Banita Jacks was found living with the decaying corpses of her four young daughters last year. Now, it is up for sale, languishing on the market despite a price reduction of more than 40 percent.

The three-bedroom, redbrick rowhouse with 1 1/2 bathrooms is up for bank auction March 15 for $90,900. It's one of the few remaining houses in the District being offered for less than $100,000, real estate agents say.

What's not revealed on any of the real estate information about the house at 4249 Sixth St. SE -- and what agents selling the house are not obligated to disclose -- is its history.

Police say Jacks, 35, killed her daughters during the summer of 2007 and lived with their bodies in the house for at least six months before they were discovered in January 2008, when U.S. marshals were doing a standard eviction.

The youngest daughter, Aja Fogle, 5, had been strangled and beaten, according to a 12-count indictment returned by a grand jury. N'Kiah Fogle, 6, and Tatiana Jacks, 11, were strangled, and Brittany Jacks, 15, whom her mother referred to as a "Jezebel," was stabbed, the indictment said. Jacks said the children died in their sleep.

Jacks is at St. Elizabeths Hospital, awaiting trial July 13 on charges including first-degree murder and child neglect. Jacks said she will plead not guilty.

Signs outside the house, whose sale was first reported by WTOP (103.5 FM), advertise the lender foreclosure.

Properties in which notorious crimes have occurred are considered "stigmatized." Although real estate agents are required to divulge material defects that could affect a property's value, crimes such as murder are considered psychological defects that don't have to be divulged.

District real estate experts say laws such as the Fair Housing Act forbid real estate agents from disclosing information about crime in a neighborhood or a home. Real estate lawyer Brian Kass said it's up to the buyer to ask the agent whether "anything unusual" has occurred in the house. Otherwise, the agent needn't divulge.