NEW EAGLE (KDKA) – Police say a man and a woman in Washington County locked their 6-year-old twins in a room, barely fed them and made them live in their own filth.

Police found a padlocked room inside the couple’s home in New Eagle.

“There were two small beds in the room,” Monongahela Police Chief Brian Tempest said. “There was a potty chair and they said they were overwhelmed with the smell of feces. The window was open. It’s about a seven-foot drop to the ground and one of the children was missing – had climbed out the window.”

A Good Samaritan found the boy wandering the street back in February. His hands and feet were purple from hypothermia. Both children were taken from the home that day and rushed to Children’s Hospital.

Officers at the scene were sickened by what they saw.

“Being a 6-year-old and in that condition with a distended stomach and covered in feces and they were functioning on a 2-year-old level,” Tempest said.

Edward Buckholz, 33, and Roxanne Taylor, 25, the parents of the twins, were arrested Wednesday.

The couple faces six charges, including aggravated assault, child endangerment and false imprisonment.

Neighbors say they never saw the parents, but saw the kids twice in four years.

“Never know what goes on behind closed doors,” Judy Wyandt, a neighbor, said.

RELATED LINKS
More Local News
More Washington County News