A 24-year-old couple raising four young children are facing legal consequences after the authorities allegedly discovered that the juveniles appeared to be in a very unsettling condition, and housed inside of a cage in a barn on the property.
Paige Harkings and Andrew Fabila reside in Rhome, Texas, who parent Harkings four little ones together, one of which is Fabila’s biological child.
When someone nearby believed they overheard the couple fighting early in the day on Tuesday, they became concerned and called the police to report the incident.
Deputies dispatched to the reported address to perform a welfare check based on the information supplied from the call, and during their investigation, they found a simple-structured barn from where they believed they could hear the sound of kids.
The deputies went inside and reported that they saw four adolescents within. Two of them, ages 4 and 5, were allegedly locked inside of a 3×3 cage structure purported to have the appearance of a dog kennel, while the other two, ages 1 and 3, were on the barn floor and allegedly covered in excrement.
The inside of the barn appeared to be designed to serve as a housing area, as they reported that there was a working refrigerator, in addition to storage spaces that appeared to be filled with quite a bit of food and were affixed with locks.
The youngsters were transported to a medical facility in order to make sure that they were in good health, due to the belief that they appeared hungry and thirsty when the deputies found them. They are currently living in foster care due to accusations that their parents were not taking care of them properly.
Harkings and Fabila were incarcerated in the county jail, and they are each facing charges of four counts of endangering a child, and charges of aggravated assault based on the accusations.
If you or someone you love is suspected of child endangerment, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.