A Pennsylvania man and woman are facing felony charges after two children revealed cruel treatment they allegedly suffered inside their great-grandfather’s “deplorable” home, police told news outlets.
Scott Narvell, 62, and Debbie Meck, 59, were arrested by the Lower Paxton Township Police Department on June 3, on charges of endangering the welfare of children, court documents show.
The children, who are 11 and 12 years old, were living with Narvell and Meck at a Harrisburg home, until they were placed with a foster family after a code enforcement officer deemed the home unfit to live in because of “unsanitary and deplorable living conditions,” WGAL reported. Narvell is the children’s great-grandfather.
In March, shortly after the children were taken from the home, police began investigating Narvell and Meck, WHP reported.
Investigators spoke with the children and learned that Narvell and Meck would lock them inside of feces-filled dog crates to punish them, the station reported.
They would be kept in those crates for up to an hour at a time without food or water, police told WGAL.
Nearby residents told WHP they were unaware of any abuse at the home and that the kids kept quiet about what was happening inside.
“They never talked about it, that was not something that was brought up as a subject,” next door neighbor Philip McLain said, adding that two girls had lived there. “They were always happy and go lucky.”
Bail was set at $75,000 each for Narvell and Meck, documents show.
Harrisburg is a roughly 110-mile drive northwest from Philadelphia.
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