FORT WORTH, Texas _ Four children living in a metal shop with their parents didn't have access to indoor plumbing or adequate heat, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Thursday.
Andrew Fabila and Paige Harkings, both 24, were charged with four counts of criminal negligence Tuesday.
Deputies with the Wise County Sheriff's Office were sent to the 100 block of County Road 4930 regarding a domestic disturbance Tuesday. When they arrived, Fabila and Harkings were outside smoking cigarettes. After being separated and talking with two deputies, another deputy went inside to check on the children.
One child was wrapped in a blanket, lying on a heating pad that was on top of a plastic-wrapped mattress. Two other children were locked in a dog kennel and covered in their own feces. The fourth child was lying in a Pack-N-Play bed and wrapped in multiple blankets, the affidavit says.
"There was a floor space heater directly next to the canine kennel where the two children covered in their own feces were lying," the document says. "There was no indoor plumbing and the children were using a non-connected toilet with trash bags around the toilet bowl."
Space heaters were within easy reach of the children and against where the children slept, the document says.
The children's clothes and bedding were dirty, and the children wore dirty diapers.
The children, who appeared to be malnourished, didn't have access to food, as it was locked in the refrigerator and pantry, the document says.
"This is at the top of the list of worst cases as far as children and how they're kept," Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said on Tuesday.
Bond was set at $60,000 for Fabila and $75,000 for Harkings. Both were still listed as being in the Wise County Jail as of 1 p.m. Thursday.
After their release from the hospital, the children were placed in foster care.
