Child found wandering leads police to home with kids in cages, PA cops say
.png "Police in Pennsylvania found kids living in cages, court records say.")
Three people in Pennsylvania were arrested after police say they found children living in cages inside a deplorable home.
On July 18, police in Freedom Township were called after a child, around 5 to 6 years old, was found wandering by himself, according to an affidavit.
A man walking his dog found the child and told another bystander to call the police. The boy had on ripped clothes, no shoes and was covered in urine, the affidavit said.
“He would just like, if I gave him the crackers, he’d say, ‘crackers,’ and he was very hungry. He, like, ate a whole pack of crackers very quickly. So then I went back and got some juice for him, and I said, ‘Do you want some juice?’ And he said, ‘juice.’ So he was repeating words, but he wasn’t giving any clear direction, like where he lived or anything like that,” John Lemon, the man who found the boy, told WTAJ.
The boy wouldn’t speak but pointed officers in the direction of his house, according to court records.
When police arrived at the home, they met a couple and asked if they had a missing child. Initially, the couple told police all their kids were accounted for, but after checking inside, they said one of the kids crawled out of a window, according to the affidavit.
When the officer looked at the window from outside, she saw a “horrifying situation in the house,” court records said.
Drywall was ripped off exposing electrical wires, there was a strong odor of urine, a gate with zip ties blocking the door from opening and other items barricading the gate, the affidavit said.
Officers went inside the home to check on other children in the house and found one child in the parent’s room inside a crib with soiled clothes and blankets and moldy sippy cups and toys, court records said. Another child was found in a crib in a different room with soiled clothes, a soaked diaper and a smell of urine, the affidavit said.
In that room, the officer saw two cribs turned upside down with two children inside, according to the affidavit. The cribs were being used as “makeshift cages” and were zip-tied and had items on top to hold them down and prevent the kids from getting out, the court records said.
Inside the cages were soiled blankets, moldy sippy cups and feces on the cribs, police said. Multiple animals were also found in cages inside the home, malnourished and living in their own feces, police said.
The children, ranging from 2 to 7 years old, were taken out of the home and given food by police. The 2-year-old had a “distended abdomen and purple legs” and was taken to a hospital, the affidavit said.
The other children were placed in custody of the Office of Children, Youth and Families. The children were thin, malnourished and neglected, police said in the affidavit. An officer added the home did not appear to have running water.
The parents and an 18-year-old in the home were taken to the police department for questioning.
McClatchy News is not naming the three adults to protect the identities of the children.
Investigators learned the children were kept in enclosures between 12 and 20 hours a day, only being let out to eat, according to court records.
The parents and the 18-year-old are all charged with multiple counts of endangering children, false imprisonment and cruelty to animals, court records show.
Freedom Township is in Blair County, about 100-mile drive east from Pittsburgh.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Child found wandering leads police to home with kids in cages, PA cops say."
