Parents of five children have been arrested after police said they were locked in a room that ‘functioned as a dungeon’ with surveillance cameras and dead bolts to prevent them from escaping.
Pennsylvania State Police said they were first called to James Russell, 65, and Carly Kahl’s, 41, home in Redstone Township on August 8 to assist Fayette County Children and Youth Services, which had received a complaint about children living in ‘deplorable conditions,’ KDKA reports.
When they arrived, the troopers found that the children – ranging in age between five and 14 – had been sequestered to a bedroom with boarded-up windows, feces covering the walls, fleas, a limited amount of food and clothing and no beds.
‘It’s sickening – that’s the only word that I can use to describe what we saw and what those children went through,’ Trooper Ally Wilson told WTAE.
A criminal complaint alleges that the children’s father would trap his children inside the room by locking the bedroom door from the outside all night and through part of the day.
‘This room functioned as a dungeon, with video cameras hardwired to the father’s room,’ the complaint states.
In addition to the three deadbolt locks on the outside of the door, police said there was no door handle that would allow them to escape.
When asked about the locks, James allegedly told troopers and a Children and Youth Services employee that he would ‘not be removing the locks from the bedroom door for any reason,’ WPXI reports.
James Russell, 65, and Carly Kahl, 41, have been taken into custody for allegedly locking their five children in a room wired with cameras
State Trooper Ally Wilson said the situation inside the home was ‘sickening’
The children were then safely removed from the home, and placed in the care of Children and Youth Services.
In the weeks since, the children reportedly told authorities that their father smoked marijuana all day and would not care for them.
They also claimed that James made Carly pull a Taser on one of the children within the last two weeks.
When Pennsylvania State Police then conducted a search warrant on the home on Wednesday, they uncovered a stun gun, a replica pistol and drugs.
‘Well it appears that these children were basically held in captivity in this room,’ Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele told reporters.
‘We have evidence that there were some cameras that were hardwired to another room where these children were being observed,’ he continued. ‘And again, there’s no reason to be using a device like a stun gun, which is less lethal, not lethal, against a child.’
The District Attorney went on to thank the ‘brave family member’ who reported the ‘deplorable conditions’ to the state’s ChildLine system.
‘Law enforcement cannot be in every household and every single minute of every day; we need people to come forward and think of these children.’
Police say the children were sequestered to a bedroom with boarded-up windows, feces covering the walls, fleas, a limited amount of food and clothing and no beds inside the Redstone Township home
The Kahls are now charged with endangering the welfare of children, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, use of an incapacitation device and drug charges.
Bail has been denied for both of the parents, according to court documents obtained by Daily Mail.
They show that James Russell has had a series of run-ins with the law in the past, including a harassment charge he pleaded guilty to in 2006.
That same year, he was also arrested for driving under the influence, and in 2012 he was charged with a probation violation.
Trooper Wilson said she now hopes ‘that these parents go to jail and they answer for what they’ve done.’