4-year-old found alone ‘covered in filth’ was kept in makeshift cage, Iowa cops say

Parents who left their children in the care of relatives instructed them to keep their 4-year-old in a makeshift cage , Iowa police said. But then the child escaped.

Deputies responded July 25 to reports of a small child alone near the road in Hamburg, according to a news release from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities found the 4-year-old with developmental disabilities covered in “filth and a mixture of both human and animal feces,” outside of a residence, Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said in the release.

A second child was found inside the home, the sheriff said. Both kids were taken to a local hospital.

An investigation revealed the parents, 26-year-olds from Shenandoah, left the children with relatives with the direction to keep the 4-year-old in a cage constructed out of a Pack ‘N Play, a baby gate roof, and zip ties, authorities said.

McClatchy News is not naming the parents to protect the identities of their children.

Deputies said the child escaped from the enclosure and left the house without waking anyone up.

Another “homemade cage” was located in a closet inside a residence in Shenandoah where the child was kept, authorities said. Investigators did not specify if this was the parents’ home.

The sheriff said “several children were removed from the home.”

The parents were both arrested on charges of neglect or abandonment and child endangerment, according to the sheriff. Additional charges are pending, he said. Attorney information for the parents was not available.

They are being held at the Fremont County Jail without bond.

Hamburg is about a 170-mile drive southwest from Des Moines.

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