A Wisconsin couple is facing child neglect charges for allegedly keeping their 13-year-old autistic daughter locked in a cold basement and forcing her to wear a diaper, WITI-TV reported.
Waukesha County police were alerted to the alleged abuse when an anonymous tipster called to report a teenage girl was being held in a basement and "treated like an animal." The girl's mother and step-father, whose names have not been released, were arrested and charged with child neglect.
According to a criminal complaint filed last Wednesday, the girl often went to Wisconsin Hills Middle School covered in feces, including on her head and arms, the Associated Press reported. Her school reached out to her parents but she continued to show up covered in excrement, "for which she gets made fun of," the complaint reads.
Wisconsin County Middle School officials also said they alerted the Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services last December.
At her Brookfield home, the 13-year-old was immediately ordered to change into a diaper and onesie and forced to remain in the basement where the temperature was 50 degrees and there was no bathroom or running water, court records show. She sometimes ate dinner in the basement and slept on a cot.
The teen, who has low-level autism, wasn't allowed sit on the furniture upstairs and was subjected to being called "Stink," WITI-TV reported.
Her mother and step-father are expected to appear in court next week.
