A 5-year-old Pennsylvania boy was found naked after escaping what authorities described as a filthy, makeshift confinement room, leading to the arrests of three guardians accused of subjecting him to deeply disturbing living conditions.
Pennsylvania State Police said the unidentified child was discovered shortly before 7:30 a.m. Friday walking in the middle of a street near his Swatara Township neighborhood.
According to WGAL, concerned passersby stopped to help the boy, who was carrying only a green blanket stained with urine, and stayed with him until emergency responders arrived and took him to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
Authorities have not said how the child managed to get out of the home.
Investigators later traced him to a deteriorating house several blocks from where he was found, where police say they uncovered appalling conditions inside.
Officers reported hoarding-like conditions throughout the residence, describing piles of trash, hundreds of flies and so much clutter that moving through the home was difficult, according to the police report.
Police said the room believed to be the boy’s bedroom had a baby gate fixed to the doorway, along with zip ties, duct tape and wooden boards drilled into the outside of the door frame in an apparent effort to keep him from leaving.
Inside, investigators said feces were smeared on the walls and windows, while a damaged bed was covered with food.
Trash littered the floor of the quarters along with various children’s toys.
Officers learned that the boy spent about 90 percent of his time locked inside the boarded-up room, where he was fed granola bars, cereal, juice, milk and water through the slots of the baby gates, WGAL reported.
The three adults inside, identified as Tucker Heagy, 20, Jade Shuey, 21, and Stephanie Schaffner, 42, allegedly only bathed the boy once a week, sometimes extending the cleanings to more than a week.
The trio was identified as the boy’s guardians, but an exact relationship was not revealed, the outlet reported.
Shuey told police that the boy could spend up to three days inside the room without being let out, forcing the boy to relieve himself inside the confines of the cell and spreading the excrement around the walls.
For the boy to be released from the room, the adults would have to cut five to 10 zip ties off the gates and then they would be put back into place with new ties and duct tape each time, Heagy confessed, according to the outlet.
The fasteners were purchased in bulk by the adults from a local store because of how much the house went through them.
The ghastly conditions inside the home, including the unsanitary state throughout the house, led town code enforcement to condemn the home, the outlet reported.
Heagy, Shuey, and Schaffner were all arrested and charged with one count of endangering welfare of the children, police said.
