A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.

“More than anything, we just want folks to know that there is potential that other homes could be built like this and just to be aware,”  said homeowner Nicole Holderfield.

Beneath their seemingly normal front-facing two-car garage in the Altman Farms neighborhood in North Huntingdon is a lot of dead space that the Holderfield family just found out about. They said having a secret room is not as cool as it sounds when you realize the structural integrity of the 30-year-old home is at risk. 

“I hate to say shocking, but it’s not something that we really wanted to be the first one on the street to find out,” Holderfield said.

Holderfield said there are leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe’s bucket down there.

“You can actually stand all the way down here on this side, a lot of backfill, and then we did see it was weatherproofed on some of the walls,” Holderfield said.

This all started because Holderfield wanted to fix the growing number of large cracks popping up across her garage floor. 

“We were starting the cosmetic fix, and our contractor was here. And with a sledgehammer, he wanted to see what he was working with, so he simply pounded down the sledgehammer,” Holderfield said.

The large void directly underneath the garage is not accessible from their finished basement. Only one wall appears to be weatherproofed, so the family believes moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of the entire two-car garage.

“A couple different companies did stop by, and they were in awe of what they found. Even the North Huntingdon inspector came out, took a look, and it was not something he was familiar with seeing,” said Holderfield.

That inspector encouraged the family to hire a structural engineer. They did, and received a report that concluded the issue was the result of “poor workmanship and faulty construction,” Holderfield said.

The family’s homeowner’s insurance denied the claim, saying defects from faulty construction are excluded from coverage.

“Knowing that we were parking our cars in here up until we found this problem — we have children and animals, and knowing that a catastrophe could come, I think that’s our biggest concern,” Holderfield said.

That’s why the family called the builder, Ryan Homes, and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floorplans.

“They really just took a look and took pictures. When we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Homes, he said this was 30 years ago, there were different laws back then,” Holderfield said.

KDKA Investigates reached out to Ryan Homes for comment to ask if building these dead spaces is still its practice. And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan Homes inspect further?

Ryan Homes said they do not comment on news stories.

In an update on Thursday, the Holderfields told KDKA Ryan Homes reached out and said it’s willing to work with them on this, share the cost of the fix, and manage the project to ensure it is fixed as they would expect.

The family feels that’s a valid attempt to make it right.   

KDKA Investigates talked to a Cranberry homeowner who also lives in a Ryan Home built around the same time. She sent photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and broke through the concrete last year. When the garage floor failed, she said it revealed a 9-foot void. She said it took four triaxle trucks of fill and $20,000 to fix.

Holderfield says that makes her wonder who else could find this.

“I would love people to be held accountable, but I also understand the laws and that we could potentially be out of the warranty period is what they say. I do wish we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed,” Holderfield said. 

More than anything, the Holderfield family says it wants people to know there is potential that other homes could be built like this and to be aware.

Park Ranger Ben Croll says outdoor plans for kids attending New Haven’s parks and rec summer camp at West Rock Ridge state park are changing with the wind, after thick smoke from Canada’s wildfires continues to make its way through the Connecticut skies.  

“Do we accept the idea that innocent, loving partners and loving and devoted fathers of 3-year-olds can be collateral damage to this government’s policies? Do we agree that this is just an acceptable cost of doing business?” Gideon said. “We truly believe that people need to understand what the real costs are.”

“I want to be clear about something. Johan Sebastián, before he was shot to death, had been accused of committing no crime. He was in this country lawfully, and he was following a lawful process that’s prescribed by our federal government,” the attorney said, adding that Durán had been issued a work permit and a Social Security number under the Trump administration.

ICE has said it was conducting “targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal” around 7 a.m. Monday, an agency spokesperson said.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the ICE spokesperson said.

Durán, who was born and raised in Bucaramanga, Colombia, had come to the U.S. in 2023 to seek better opportunities for him and his family, relatives said.

A spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News in an email that Durán “illegally entered the United States” through the southern border nearly three years ago “and was released into the country under the Biden Administration.”

Entering the U.S. without proper authorization is a misdemeanor, but living in the country without legal permission is a civil violation and not a criminal offense.

At work, and everywhere he went, Durán carried an infectious joy, Rojas said.

As a father, he was devoted. Aside from working cleaning and delivery jobs to provide for his family, he took their daughter, Dulce — or “gordita” (chubby) as he lovingly called her — to the park every afternoon, Rojas said.

Durán always indulged his little girl whenever she had a craving for nuggets and fries, Rojas said, adding he would often marvel in tears every time he realized his daughter “was getting bigger.”

Rojas recalled a conversation she had with Durán a few months ago, wondering who their little girl would grow up to be. Durán said he would have a hard time sending off his daughter to school for the first time, she said.

Dulce now asks for her father every night, Rojas said, breaking down in tears. “And I don’t have the strength to tell her that dad isn’t coming, that she can’t give him a hug and tell him ‘I love you.’”

Gideon said that “there will come a time when those responsible for Johan Sebastián’s needless death will have to answer for what they did. But today is not that day. … Today is about Johan Sebastián and who he was as a person.”