Couple charged after six-year-old boy found naked and locked in a dog cage in Philadelphia home
Couple charged after 6-year-old boy found naked locked in dog crate in Philadelphia, with two girls outside in the rain
- Michelle Campbell, 30, and Paul Weber, 31, are charged with the horrific crime
- The charges endanger the welfare of a child and are reckless danger
- The children were taken to a local hospital for assessment
A couple has been charged after a six-year-old boy was found naked locked inside a dog crate at a Philadelphia home, and two girls in diapers were found wandering around in the rain.
Michelle Campbell, 30, and Paul Weber, 31, are charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering a person, Philadelphia Police Department Sgt. Eric Gripp said. CBS Philadelphia News.
A concerned neighbor alerted police after hearing screaming around 1 p.m. Thursday in a residential Philadelphia neighborhood.
When officers arrived, they found the two girls, ages 4 and 5, outside the home. Once they got inside, they found the boy locked inside the dog’s crate, with a blanket and a pillow. A cable tie had been used to secure the door shut.
Investigators said a woman inside the home and the mother of at least one of the three children was taken to the Special Victims Unit where police interviewed her. She has not yet been charged.
Michelle Campbell, 30, (pictured) was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering a person, a police spokesperson told CBS Philadelphia News.
Paul Weber, 30, was slapped with the same charges as Campbell in the heinous crime.
A concerned neighbor alerted police after hearing screaming around 1 p.m. Thursday in the 4200 block of Glenview Street in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood.
Police are also searching for the father of the children while the investigation continues.
An elderly woman in a wheelchair and a 40-year-old man were also found inside the home, according to authorities, the news outlet reported.
Police believe the 80-year-old woman is the children’s grandmother or great-grandmother and the adult man is an uncle with an intellectual disability.
The children did not appear to be injured, but they were taken to a hospital for evaluation and will later be in the care of DHS, authorities said.
Police said two other children who live in the house were at school at the time. nbc miami informed.
A close-up of the Philadelphia home where a child was found locked in a dog crate and two other children were discovered outside the home.
Neighbor Héctor Pérez found the children when he got home from work and was horrified by what he saw.
They have Pampers on. They have no shirts, no pants, no shoes. They are screaming, it is raining, it is cold,’ said Pérez Action 6 News.
They are screaming for their mother and father.
The Department of Human Services has been to the home before, a neighbor said, the news outlet reported.
“Due to state confidentiality laws, DHS cannot comment on whether or not a family has current or past DHS involvement,” the department said in a statement to Action News.
Others said the boy might have autism, although police could not confirm this at this time. nbc miami informed.
“We don’t fully know everything that’s going on here,” the police spokesman said.
We have a long investigation ahead of us. But, obviously, we don’t live in a world where, under any situation, we must have a child in a cage or small children standing outside in the rain.’