LIBERTY, Mo., May 5 (UPI) -- Liberty, Mo., police, acting on a tip that a father had threatened a child with a knife, found five young children living in filth, authorities said.
The children's parents, Paul and Bethany Jenkins, both 27, were arrested Wednesday, the Kansas City Star reported. Both face five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Officers who went to the Jenkins home found two boys and two girls ranging in age from 2 to 8 in a basement bedroom smelling of urine with feces smeared on the walls. The door had been locked shut on the outside by a coaxial cable wound around the handle, and the oldest child, an 8-year-old girl, said the children were locked in every night.
A 1-year-old boy was in another room in a urine-soaked crib, police said.
The children were placed in the custody of social services, court records indicated.
