(Wise County Sheriff’s Department)
UPDATED: 8:28AM 2/13/19 –
Decatur, Texas (WBAP/KLIF) – A North Texas couple is jailed without bond after four malnourished children were found in deplorable conditions at their rural home.
Wise County jail records show Paige Harkings and Andrew Joseph Fabila are each charged with four counts of criminal child endangerment. both are 24. Harkings, the children’s mother, was also charged with aggravated assault.
Investigators found the children, all, aged 5 or younger, in a barn outside the family home and just feet away from plentiful food kept under lock and key.
Two of the old children were locked in a 3-by-3-foot cage, while two younger children were found outside the cage but only partially clothed and smeared with feces and urine.
Officials with the Texas Child Protective services say the children were released from hospital. Marissa Gonzales with CPS said the three boys ages 5, 3 and 1 and a 4 year old girl are doing ok but would not release further details.
This is the #Newark home where #WiseCounty Sheriffs reportedly found 4 children-malnourished, covered in feces- 2 found locked in a dog kennel(Ages 1,3,4,5)
The couple in the home face four counts of child endangerment. I spoke with a neighbor. DETAILS ON @WBAP247NEWS @570KLIF pic.twitter.com/KwMttUFBxu— Katrina Boonzaier (@katrinaboonz) February 12, 2019
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DECATUR, Texas (AP) – A Texas sheriff say deputies responding to a domestic disturbance at a home discovered two young, malnourished children locked together in a dog cage while two others also were found malnourished.
Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin says deputies found the children, ages 5 and younger, Tuesday morning at a home near Rhome, about 20 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
Akin says two were in a locked cage about 3-by-3 feet that was in an outbuilding. The two other children were in the home.
He says there was plenty of food in the home but it was under lock and key.
The children were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Akin says the parents of the children had been fighting and the man had cuts to his face.
The pair is facing child-endangerment charges.
(Copyright 2019, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
