BATON ROUGE – An alleged pedophile housed the foster children he is accused of molesting and raping in an older mobile home adjoining a crumbling raised house – held together with what appeared to be amateur remodeling work.

Michael Hadden, 52, was arrested Thursday after complaints he raped and molested at least three foster or adoptive children in his care.

The Department of Children and Family services temporarily removed one child from his home but later returned the boy who eventually told deputies, Hadden had sex with him “many times.”

In arrest records obtained by the WBRZ Investigative Unit, deputies noted DCFS previously investigated complaints against Hadden. 

Hadden lived with the children at a compound at the corner of Plains-Port Hudson Road and Hwy. 61 in Zachary.

When the WBRZ Investigative Unit recorded video of the property Friday, it was hard to understand how state child advocates could return children to the home, which was in a state of disrepair. 

A larger, wood-frame, raised house was seen falling apart, next to a mobile home.

The property had what appeared to be other, abandoned buildings on it.

WBRZ video and images from Google Street View show signs posted on a fence that surrounds the property.

“Posted private property” warned one; “Restricted area” warned another.

In a May 2022 Google image, an old mattress is shown dumped along the fence next to the driveway, which was closed with a metal gate.

A 2016 image of the property showed things were in less disarray then – the older home and a trailer next to it had not been connected, the trees were less overgrown and a sign out front read “Hadden Farms” with a number that has since been disconnected.

Property records show it is not registered to Hadden but an LLC in Jackson, La.

A person at the company on Friday told WBRZ, she was not familiar with Hadden and the men listed as its owners were not available to comment on the property.

DCFS did not comment when asked by WBRZ about how agents did not seem alarmed by the state of the home when they visited the property. 

The situation compounds already questionable work by the agency after WBRZ reported earlier in the week, state advocates failed to act in complaints leading up to a child's overdose death in a separate case.