of kids , but I 've never seen any of those kids come out and play . '' Savage recalls speaking to Thurmond once , after someone stole one of her son 's bike tires . Thurmond kindly told Savage he had n't seen anything suspicious . `` He was nice , polite , seemed like a normal guy , '' she said . Watch a walk-through of the filth '' Alma Medina , the property manager for the 100-unit Beaver Creek mobile home park , lives three doors from what is now a crime scene . She remembers Thurmond was a polite fellow . He always called her `` Miss Alma '' when he dropped by the office to explain that his rent was late , a routine occurrence that eventually led Medina 's maintenance man to a foul discovery . She occasionally saw Thurmond mingling with other tenants , but she never saw his family . The only indication that one existed , Medina said , was that he and his wife both signed a lease August 22 , 2005 , and noted on their application that they had three sons and a daughter . `` I never
LAVONIA , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Sonya Savage 's back door opens to a cozy wooden porch that serves as a shelter for her 9-year-old son 's bicycles and spare parts . Residents of Beaver Creek in Lavonia , Georgia , say they had no idea a neighbor was holding his family captive . A 30-foot tract of red clay and splotchy crab grass separates her mobile home from the home of Raymond Daniel Thurmond , a residence so rank and squalid that it forced a seasoned police investigator to vomit upon entering . Another officer donned a gas mask just to walk inside . Savage and her neighbors say they had no clue that Thurmond , 36 , had a wife , let alone four kids ; they were also oblivious that Thurmond may have held the five hostage in the three-bedroom mobile home for three years . `` My son , he 's a little bicycle mechanic . He 's always in the backyard , and he do n't recall ever seeing nobody over here , '' said Savage , 29 , who also has a 4-year-old daughter . `` Usually I 've got a yard full