A pair of Iowa parents are facing charges after deputies say they kept their four-year-old son in a "makeshift cage" and instructed relatives to not let the child out while he was staying with them.
Dustin Carl Lee Perry and Lindsey Barbara Marie Hamilton, both 26, were charged with neglect or abandonment of a dependent and child endangerment. They were booked into the Fremont County Jail without bond. Additional charges are pending.
The two parents were arrested after deputies found their four-year-old son with developmental disabilities alone at about 9 a.m. Thursday morning outside a home in Hamburg, Iowa, covered in filth and a mixture of both human and animal feces, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
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Another child was found inside the property, and both children were transported to a hospital for evaluation.
Perry and Hamilton, both of Shenandoah, Iowa, had left their children with relatives, who they told to keep the four-year-old in the makeshift cage.
The cage, which deputies found in the home, was made out of a pack and play, a baby gate roof and zip ties. Deputies said that the child managed to escape the cage and left the home without waking anyone up.
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A second homemade cage was found in the parents' home in Shenandoah, where the child was allegedly kept in a walk-in closet.
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services removed several children from the home in Hamburg.
