Donald Lantz, left, and Jeanne Whitefeather, right (West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority)
Adoptive parents in West Virginia face criminal charges after deputies found two children in dirty clothes and reeking of body odor locked in a barn room with concrete floors and no beds and a third child locked in the main home alone in an unprotected loft about 15 feet high.
Donald Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Whitefeather, 61, were arrested on felony charges of gross child neglect after deputies made the discovery on Monday, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Deputies launched an investigation after someone called 911 saying the children were locked in the barn for days and were not allowed in the home, ABC Charleston, West Virginia, affiliate WCHS-TV reported, citing a criminal complaint.
When deputies arrived at the home in the 200 block of Cheyenne Lane in Sissonville, they found no parents.
Deputies forced their way into the barn and found a boy and a girl locked in a 20×14-foot room. A third child was found locked in a room in the home.
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“It’s a pretty bad case,” Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Josh Lester said, the station reported. “You know, any type of situation like this is not really comparable to this horrific condition. It’s just not how you want or how you would expect children to be raised or taken care of.”
The children had no means to get out of the barn on their own, authorities said. There was no running water, no bathroom facilities, and the children were “obviously deprived of adequate hygienic care and food,” the news release said. In the home, deputies found a third small child up in a loft, alone.
No caretakers or parents were found at the home then, but the adoptive parents arrived later and were arrested, authorities said.
Child Protective Services took the kids into their care.
The parents were held in jail on a $200,000 cash bond with an Oct. 12 preliminary hearing date set, online jail records show. It was unclear whether they have attorneys.
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