Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SICK PARENTS FORCE GIRL, 6, TO LIE IN DOG CAGE, ZIP-TIE, TORTURE

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

When his 6-year-old daughter becomes unresponsive, Jacob Weight calls 911. He tells dispatch one of his older children was bathing his 6-year-old when she went limp and suffered some type of seizure. First responders are met by Jacob at the door. He refuses to allow EMS into the house, telling them he must get his daughter dressed. He brings her outside where she can be seen. Police and first responders are taken aback by the conditions at the home. Trash is scattered about. Feces is smeared on the ground, and the smell of urine is very strong. The 6-year-old girl they have been called to treat is covered in open sores and KDKA reports she has extensive bruises and appears malnourished. Once the 6-year-old girl is at the hospital the full extent of her injuries is apparent. According to a medical report, her teeth are broken and rotted, and her feet are swollen. When she arrives at Uniontown Hospital,  she is found to be hypothermic, with a body temperature registering at only 88.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Pennsylvania state troopers begin their investigation into the parents of the children in the house,  after police note that doctors at the hospital state multiple times, that the little girl could have died as a result of the abuse and neglect. The doctors also say if she returns to her current environment she is likely to die of the abuse and neglect. During the investigation, Weight and Frost's teenage nephew, who lived with them, describes how the young girl's mother would zip-tie her hands and feet, lock her naked in a cage and refuse to wash her. Frost would also starve the little girl, not feeding her for days at a time. The floor under the cage was rotting from feces and urine that was never cleaned. WTAE reports that a 5-year-old child was interviewed and asked if anyone helped the girl clean up her poop and pee. The child responded, "They want her to eat it... my parents." Jacob William Weight, 37, and 33-year-old Mimi Ann Frost are charged with child abuse, involuntary servitude, and strangulation among several other offenses.  They are accused of starving their daughter while making sure their other children and dogs, had plenty to eat. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Fran Longwell – Former Deputy State’s Attorney (Calvert County, MD), Former Assistant State’s Attorney (Prince George’s County, MD) specializing in child abuse, sex offenses and homicides  Dr. Angela Arnold – Psychiatrist, Atlanta, GA; Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women; Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University; Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital; Voted “My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2022”   Brian Pierog - Former Law Enforcement, Pennsylvania Licensed Private Detective and Owner of Pierog Detective Agency; FB: Pierog Detective Agency   Paula Rohde –  Child Abuse/Welfare Consultant and Expert and Former Child Protective Services Abuse Investigator; Paula Rohde Consulting LLC; Twitter: @PaulaRohde2  Joseph Napsha - Reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; X: @jnapsha, Twitter & FB: @TribLIVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Pennsylvania parents have just been booked. You know what? I don't even think they deserve to be called mom and dad or mother and father. Those are special words, right? Think about your mother and your father. If you're at all like me, my mother and father sacrificed everything for me, my brother and sister. My dad worked night shifts, traveled. My mom would be gone to work by the time I got up at a quarter of seven

with breakfast all laid out for my brother and sister and myself. We wouldn't see her again until six or seven o'clock at night. I mean, it was all for us. These Pennsylvania parents have just been booked for locking their six-year-old little girl. This tastes like dirt in my mouth. Six-year-old in a dog cage and keeping her there, sometimes naked, making her eat dog food at best, sometimes her own feces and urine, beating her, zip-tying her, a six-year-old little girl.

I was thinking of John David and Lucy, my little babies. Of course, John David is 6'5 now. And I watched Lucy in a chorus performance last night. Front, middle, amazing. But I remember when they were six years old. So precious, so sweet. This little girl has been locked in a dog cage. And even a large dog cage is still too small for a child to fit in and stay. Ziptied, beaten, starved, and forced to eat her own feces and urine.

Of course, there's no death penalty for parents like these. I often ask why, but frankly, that's a little bit of a waste of time. I learned the hard way in court after prosecuting felonies for many, many years. Why? Does it matter why? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. You know, when I would argue a case like this to a jury or present it to them in opening statement, very often they would shut their eyes or flinch to the side, and I would have to get them right back, looking right at the facts and not turning away. Why? Because the moment we turned away, we let it happen again. Sick Pennsylvania parents busted for locking their six-year-old little girl in a dog cage in a house of horrors. Take a listen to Sydney Sumner, CrimeOnline.com.

When a six-year-old daughter becomes unresponsive, Jacob Waite calls 911. He tells dispatch one of his older children was giving his six-year-old a bath when she went limp and suffered some type of seizure. First responders arrive at the house and are met at the door by Jacob Waite. He refuses to let EMS in the house. Instead, he gets the girl and brings her outside where she can be seen. Uh-uh. No. N-O. Why are you bringing a responsive child outside? Why aren't you in the home performing CPR, trying to help the child? What? You don't want EMTs to go in the house? Why? Why don't you want EMTs to come in your house? Joining me in All-Star Panel to make sense of what we know right now,

but first to investigate a reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, you can find him at triblive.com. It's Joseph Napsha. Joseph, thank you for being with us. Now, I want to pretend we're on the floor of a nursery, and we're building a tall tower of blocks. But right now, we're building from the bottom up the building blocks. Start at the beginning. The EMTs get there. What were they told on the 911 call? Well, they were told that the little girl was unresponsive. The crazy thing is that when they arrived at the door, the EMTs and

the fire company, and the father said, you can't come in now. I have to dress my daughter and who's unresponsive. And apparently, you know, he dressed the girl so that the bruises on her body were not visible, easily visible, let's say. OK, stop. Wait. Joseph Napsha, joining me from TribLive.com. See, I didn't know you were going to say that. And isn't it true? Fran Longwell joining me, former felony

prosecutor, Calvert County, Maryland. Isn't it true, Fran Longwell? You should never ask the question that you don't know the answer to. Isn't that true? Oh, absolutely. Oh, every time I have broken that rule, it blew up in my face. But Joseph Napster, I'm glad I asked the question because he just told me something I didn't know. So I thought when the EMTs showed up that he was just standing there with the daughter.

But you're telling me he said, well, no, no, no, no. Don't come in. I got to go dress my daughter so she's unresponsive and he's worried she's not dressed? Right, well, maybe she had, she was up in the bathroom, in the bathtub, in the dirty bathroom, according to the criminal complaint. So I don't know if she was entirely naked at that point.

But wait, that's what he told the EMTs. Oh, yeah, right. That I have to dress my daughter first. Okay, let me ask a question. Dr. Angela Arnold, in addition to Fran Longwell and Joseph Knapps, who are joining me, Dr. Angie, as I call her, is Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist. She's got so many lines after her name. It would take the whole show to tell you all of her expertise.

But you can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Dr. Angie, you know what? I remember when I thought I was miscarrying and we were away from home and I took an emergency ride to uh where was Jacksonville Hospital I had um a one-eyed ambulance driver named Elvis and he was awesome we flew to the hospital and the nurses and the doctors came in the room they went hold on we'll let you undress and they started to leave, I'm like, I could be losing the twins. I'll strip right now. You know, who cared? I needed to save the babies, right? Yeah.

So when is there a time for modesty? Your child is unresponsive and you say, oh, no, no, to the EMT, I got to go put her clothes on. What? That's BS and that's a lie. It's a huge red flag, delaying access to the child. Absolutely. Is that Fran Longwell?

This is Paula Rohde. Oh, it's Paula Rohde. Guys, Paula Rohde, who so rudely interrupted Dr. Angie Arnold, but Angie's probably going to give some kind of a mental defect defense to the mom and dad. Paula Rohde's with me, child abuse welfare consultant, former CPS, Child Protective Services in Orange County, about 3 million people, never a lack of abusing children there. But that said, Dr. Angie, that's a lie. I'm not even close to where this happened in Brownsville, PA, but I can smell a lie from here.

What do you mean a lie, Nancy? What's a lie? The girl is upstairs, unresponsive, according to the father, but he won't let EMTs in because he wants to dress her first. That's a lie. Oh, sure. And I wonder, don't you also wonder if he wanted to clean up the house a little bit too? He's just buying himself some time. I mean, when your child could be dying and they're unresponsive, I mean, Paula Rohde joining me, have you ever heard that before? Sorry, Joseph Knapshaw, I know we got a lot to talk about, but right at the opening, you shot the gun and I'm out the gate. I already smell a lie, Paula Rohde. Oh, absolutely. It's an absolute lie, and it's

a red flag. It's delaying access. It's probably been part of their M.O. if they've had any other type of agency officials at the door to check on any complaints or allegations, and it's just

one of their tactics. And you know, Brian Pierog joining me out of Newcastle, same jurisdiction there in Pennsylvania, former law enforcement, Pennsylvania, private detective, owner of Pierog Detective Agency at pierogdetectiveagency.com. Brian, you're so much of a better person than me because if I were the cop on this case or the EMT, I would run through that door to get that girl. But first, I would totally punch the dad right in the mouth.

I mean, just dead on for even saying, wait, she could be dying, but let me go dress her. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, he's out there waving, basically. He's in the front yard waving red flags with that statement. Oh, by the way, I'm totally stealing that. In the front yard waving red flags. Yeah, go ahead. And that's the thing.

I mean, I'm in the child custody realm almost every day. And a lot of times, you know, the abuse comes to light. And that's the thing that bothers me the most is there's always red flags. I mean, there was warning signs with this. You know, there's warning signs with almost all of them. And our system is, we're not, our system isn't doing the children any justice in this state. We're missing the warning signs. We have to find out the weaknesses and figure out what's going on.

Figure out why we're missing these warning signs. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, Brian. Brian Pierog, everything you just said is absolutely correct. But can I deal with this case before I deal with a systemic problem in Pennsylvania? And it's not just Pennsylvania. It's every state. I mean, Paula Rohde, I know this is such a big, huge issue,

but I'm going to limit you to one question. Yes, no. Isn't this a problem in every state? Yes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So the dad says his daughter is unresponsive. That can mean dead, dying. It can mean anything. It can mean an epileptic seizure. She could have had a stroke, although that's probably unlikely in such a small child, but it could happen.

Anything could be happening in seconds count, but dad won't let them in. Gee, I wonder why. Listen. When troopers entered the home of Jacob Waite and Mimi Frost, they found it in deplorable condition. There were five other children along with animals found in the house. It was determined that the six-year-old girl seemed to be the target of the abuse. While the home was overrun with trash, flies, feces, and urine, the five other children and dogs were all well-fed and not abused. Okay, wait a minute. I need to hear that again. Let's hear Sidney Sumner climb online one more time. When troopers entered the home of Jacob Waite and Mimi Frost, they found it in deplorable condition. There were five other children along with animals found in the house.

It was determined that the six-year-old girl seemed to be the target of the abuse. While the home was overrun with trash, flies, feces, and urine, the five other children and dogs were all well-fed and not abused. Now I know why they didn't want the EMTs and the troopers in the house. Thank you, Lord, for them going in the house anyway. You know, Dr. Angie, I'm going to tell you a story I've never told you. Guess what? I do have a few mysteries left in me. I was prosecuting a murder case that the murder occurred while I was still

in law school, but it got reversed all the way up to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on the door of the U.S. Supreme Court, sent back down for a retrial in severance of the two defendants. That said, I was putting the case back together again, and I latched on to the victim's now adult sister. Big family, like I think there were eight siblings, a mom and a dad. Come to find out, she would always sit separate from the rest of the family in trial. She's really brilliant, beautiful, likable, helpful, caring. And I did notice that in retrospect. Guess why?

Because she, out of the whole family, was abused. She was the only one that was abused. And I would put my life on the fact that she was, in fact, abused. Sex abused and mistreated. That's the first time I knew about it, but I didn't analyze it. Dr. Angie, I was trying cases fast and furious. I didn't think that through, but it's true. I've handled so many cases, prosecuted, investigated, covered, where one child is singled out and that child is horribly abused. And Nancy, there are so many cases of this that it actually has a name.

And the name for this is the Cinderella phenomenon. And the Cinderella, so much research has been done about this, that this has been given a name. And it involves oftentimes the redirection of anger that an abusive parent feels towards someone else, but they target it on a child. And the horrible thing is sometimes the targeted child can remind the abusive parent of someone. Sometimes the abuser has a history of abuse themselves, and oftentimes there is absolutely no logical explanation. Well, what did you say about somebody having a history of abuse themselves? Sometimes the abuser has a history of abuse themselves.

Yeah, I don't care. Okay, I know, I know. I just wanted to point it out. I know I sound harsh, and I'm sure I will be attacked on Facebook and Twitter and blah, blah, blah. When you have an innocent six-year-old girl who is forced to eat her own feces, you know what I said to the children before they went to school this morning? I said, I'm certainly not the greatest parent. I try to be that. I said, you want me to make you a homemade Irish shepherd pie tonight?

Or do you want me to make you a spaghetti bake with cheese on top? And I was so happy because they were going back and forth. Well, I like both of them. And I was so happy that I was going to be able to make something for them that they would like. Okay. And here they're making this child eat feces. And Nancy, I want to point something else

out also. I don't believe that we can say that the other children were not abused when they were still living in this house of horrors. You know what? You might be right but can I at least address the little girl that was zip-tied in the dog cage? Can I just get that far, Dr. Angie?

Thank you. Take a listen to Nicole Parton, Crime Online. Police and first responders are taken aback by the conditions at the home where Jacob Waite and Mimi Frost are raising their children. Trash is scattered about, feces is smeared on the ground, and the smell of urine is very strong. The six-year-old girl they have been called to treat is covered in open sores, and KDKA reports she has extensive bruises and appears malnourished.

Joseph Napsha joining me from Pittsburgh Tribune Review to explain to me what they found. Well, they found, as the report said, Nancy, that the house was in terrible condition, dog feces, feces in the bathroom, the little girl, there was feces in the cage. The criminal complaint, as I read it, does not say she ate the feces, but that she was definitely hungry and was not getting enough food and was escaping the cage, in essence, to try to get food. Well, I believe that the child was forced to eat feces, and I'm getting that from a sibling and the child. Take a listen to Hour Cut 6. This is Dave Mack, Crime Online. During the investigation, Waite and Frost's teenage nephew, who lived with them, describes how the young girl's mother would zip tie her hands and feet, lock her naked in a cage, and refuse to wash her. Frost

would also starve the little girl, not feeding her for days at a time. The floor under the cage was rotting from feces and urine that was never cleaned. WTAE reports that a five-year-old child was interviewed and asked if anyone helped the girl clean up her poo and pee. The child responded, they want her to eat it. Paula Rohde, child abuse welfare consultant and expert, formerly with Child Protective Services, Orange County. Paula Rohde, just when I say, well, I've seen it all, I find out I haven't seen it all by far. I mean, abuse can be a filthy home. That can be child abuse on its own with no other circumstances. Where there is feces on the floor, a heavy smell of urine, trash everywhere,

but making the child eat feces, making the child eat her own poop and urine? It's a pretty clear case that it goes much further beyond abuse and neglect to, you know, pure torture. The, you know, intentional infliction of all this pain and suffering on this child for, you know, dehumanization purposes. It's just, it just shocks the mind. But what's very interesting is that the brother of Mr. Waite, Thomas Waite, I believe the father's name, said that the children had been removed in the past and returned to the parents. And I think that is going to answer some questions because obviously there was some type of history there. And for them to be removed, which is the most drastic intervention that you can take as a child protective services. And then to return the children, if children return home, there is monitoring going on from anywhere from six to 18 months. So, you know, where were child protective

services in this case? And we have even the landlord who said he knew that child, that little girl was the black sheep. So he, in his observations, identified that child was being targeted. And another thing to Paula Rohde joining us, you can find her at Paula Rohde Consulting. It's not like it was a secret. Footage from inside this real life house of horrors shows the black dog crate in the living room. Front and center. It's right there for everybody to walk by and see. So it's not like they were keeping her off in a locked room.

They had her right out in the open, naked, eating her own feces and urine in the living room, Paula. I mean, that tells me they were acting with complete impunity. They were not afraid of getting caught. Absolutely. They were used to bullying and tormenting these little children. Absolutely. But they were, I don't want to call them smart, but intentional enough to keep this little child hidden from protective adults like pediatricians, dentists.

She had not been in years, six years old, no schooling. So they were intentionally, as much as I agree with you, 100% intentionally afflicting all this abuse and torment. They were also trying to keep her hidden from protective adults. Oh, absolutely. Well, it doesn't end there. Wait till you hear what happens when the little girl gets to the hospital. Now, this is by the EMTs. The parents certainly didn't take her. Listen to Rachel Bonilla, Crime Online.

Once the six-year-old girl is at the hospital, the full extent of her injuries is apparent. According to a medical report obtained by the Observer Reporter, her teeth are broken and rotted and her feet are swollen. When she arrives at Uniontown Hospital, she is found to be hypothermic with a body temperature registering at only 88.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Angie Arnold, psychiatrist and medical doctor, what does that mean when your body's at 88.7 degrees Fahrenheit? Well, what it means is you're practically dead. Your body and your organs are shutting down, Nancy, because you are so very cold.

All of her organs were shutting down. Why does low body temperature equal your organs shutting down? Well, because they're trying to maintain their heat. It's a medical emergency. I know, but why does hypothermia end up, why do your organs shut down just because you're cold? Why do they need the heat? For your blood to flow normally. Okay, so your heart needs the heat for your blood to flow and for the heart to keep pumping. I still don't understand why. I know it to be true that people die of hypothermia, but I don't understand the nexus between cold weather and your organs shutting down.

Why do your organs have to be warm in order to work? All of our organs need to be in homeostasis, okay? If your body temperature is dangerously low, your brain and your body cannot function properly and hypothermia can then lead to cardiac arrest. Everything in our body needs to be at homeostasis. So I have a child with her teeth broken out, living in a dog cage in the living room. And nobody does a thing.

Brian Pierog joining me from this jurisdiction, Pennsylvania, now running his own detective agency, Pierog Detective Agency. Did you hear what it was either Fran Longwell, Paula Rohde or Joseph Napsha told me that the other children had been removed and put back in the home by CPS Child Protective Services. They knew there was a problem. Why do I have to have a little girl whose tip is 88 degrees with her teeth knocked out eating dog crap? Why? Why did they put these children back? It's absolutely terrible what happened to this little girl. And, you know, we talk about the red flag when EMS arrives, but there was warning signs before. And I mean, this is a perfect example. So somebody needs to look into this. Why were those kids given back? Why were they

taken to begin with? Let's investigate this. Let's try to prevent this from happening again. We are learning more. Dr. Angie mentioned something called the Cinderella phenomenon, where one child is picked on by the parents, but apparently in this case, the other children were encouraged to join in. Take a listen to Sydney Sumner, Crime Online. Fayette County District Attorney Mike Abel says this is the worst case of child abuse he has ever seen. But Abel said there is also some evidence that some of the other children may have participated in the abuse of the girl. The children in the house range in age from 5 to 17, and Abel says some of the children could face charges. Abel tells WTAE it seems as if the

other children were raised with the notion that this girl deserved it. Police are still trying to figure out what led the parents to abuse the one girl in such an extreme way and not any other children in the home. Fran Longwell joining me, veteran trial lawyer, former prosecutor. Fran, yes, I am, let me, not baffled, not confused. I'm shocked at the phenomena of the other siblings joining in the abuse. But it's happened before where the other children join in the abuse at the behest of the parents. They're the master manipulators. And these children, they are children too. They're going to go the rest of their life remembering they abused their sister

or they did nothing while their sister was dying. You know, I'd like to just speak to that because what the other siblings learn is that empathetic behavior towards the six-year-old sister, towards that targeted child is not a safe option. And they're deprived of normal model of parenting and those parents coerce the other children into adopting the same view or a similar view of the targeted child. And these type of empathy deficits, excuse me, that develop in siblings is unfortunately can be very common with, especially with severely scapegoated children. Paula Rohde, your expertise as an employee at Child Protective Services, an abuse investigator, now with your own consulting firm, have you ever seen this before? Oh, yeah.

It's not completely uncommon whatsoever. And again, it's because you have this, you know, completely abnormal model of parenting. And it's not safe for, you know, if one of the siblings was trying to, let's say, maybe get her some food, maybe get her some clothing, that child is going to be targeted as well for helping out who the parents have determined is the problem in the family. So it's not a safe option. And in order to even process and live in this house of whores, they have to just continue to detach more and more. You know, I'm looking at a picture, Dr. Angela Arnold, and it's of the crime scene.

It's the living room. The front door, which is filthy, I might add, opens directly into the living room. And it looks like they've got this sofa, like a pit grouping, with, instead of a coffee table, they've got the dog cage. And it's not that big of a dog cage i might add it's right in the middle of the floor like that's their entertainment watching the

child starving in the cage and beating her and in the picture and this is with police taking the picture i can only imagine what it would be like without the police looking. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, I think I see seven dogs. One looks like a pit bull. I think I see a Rottweiler. I mean, that's where the girl is living. The dogs are running around her in the dog cage and she's in the middle of the pit group like she's the entertainment. Well, you know what else I think? I don't think she's just the entertainment. I think that she is the way that the parents are keeping all of the other ones under control. They see how scared this little girl is and how abused she is and that's

keeping everybody else quiet because we haven't heard anything about any of these other kids trying to sneak out and report any of this that's going on because they're scared to death. I mean they're not even embarrassed Angie. They don't even have her in a different room. You walk in the front door and there she is naked in a cage eating dog poop. Right. And another thing I learned by looking at the reports is that her body was covered in open sores and she was believed to be septic. Now, sepsis is life-threatening. You die when you get sepsis very often. Because you explain what this means, open sores, living in dog urine and feces and your own urine and feces, and you're getting sepsis. Well, sepsis is a blood infection. So I can only imagine, I mean, Nancy, I imagine there were fleas

and ticks in the house also. And so she could have open wounds from scratching herself, from flea and tick infestation. What is sepsis? Sepsis is when a bacteria gets into your blood. And it's a medical emergency, and you better be put on some IV antibiotics for that. And at a certain point, IVs won't work anymore. Well, at a certain point, IVs won't work anymore. Well, at a certain point, you die. Joseph Napsha, I need to hear more facts. It's the nephew tells cops that Frost, and that would be the mother, Mimi Ann Frost, would zip tie the child's hands and feet and refuse to wash her.

Another child said they would make the six-year-old eat her own waste, feces, and urine. Thoughts? Is that correct? The mother definitely zip tied the girl's hands and legs so that she could not get out of the cage because she, to the parents, I guess, discussed was escaping her prison and walking around the house. In addition, Nancy, it says in the complaint that the parents had screwed tight the bathroom door because they didn't want the dogs to, you know, mess up, as you can expect, the bathroom. So, I mean, even the kids did you can expect, the bathroom. So, I mean, even the kids did not have access to the bathroom. You're hearing Joseph Napsha from Pittsburgh Tribune Review, but there's more. Take a listen to Nicole Parton. Troopers conducted interviews with several of the

children in the home and learned the little girl held in the dog crate was also beaten multiple times. According to the criminal complaint, the victim told therapists that she slept every night in the dog cage and ate dog food. She told the therapist that Waite beat her and shot her in the legs with a BB gun. The parents are also accused of beating her with a broom handle when she had accidents. And more. According to the criminal complaint, the nephew of Jacob William Waite and Mimi Frost tells investigators that Frost put the girl in the dog kennel naked and left her there overnight. Also, when the family left the house, Frost would zip tie the girl's hands and feet together and lock the kennel. The teen told state police that Frost would not feed that little girl for days at a time. Okay, Paula

Rohde joining me, former CPS in Orange County, California. What do you think? Oh gosh, I think that there were absolutely, you know, red flags going on that were perhaps well missed i think i would find it hard to believe that the children if they were attending outside school that they were going to school clean well nourished not looking disheveled on a day-to-day basis we know that this child was the targeted victim was was kept from protective, no dentist, no pediatrician, no schooling. Even the landlord, who I'm shocked that he allowed the condition of that home to be as it was, he, you know, knew that this was a targeted child. So, you know, there were definitely red flags out there. And even though we have this one child tortured, all those children were subjected to abuse just in deplorable conditions they were forced to live in. You know, to you, Brian Pierog, joining me, former law enforcement there in Pennsylvania, now running Pierog Detective Agency. Brian, there were eight dogs and two cats running wild in there

in what the L.A. law enforcement described as a, quote, madhouse. If you look at the dogs, they're all well taken care of. They're fed. Not one of them look hungry. But they were starving and beating and knocking the teeth out of this little girl. Yeah, it's disgusting. And you're right. I saw the pictures and the dogs do look healthy. They actually look happy. I mean, in the environment that they were in, they're getting treated better than the kids were. And that's, I think that's the most disgusting part. I mean,

this hurts the whole community. It hurts the neighborhood. I just can't believe CPS let it happen. The children have been taken away before and put back in the home. Why? Well, I don't know. We need to find out why they were taken. We need to find out why they were put back. There has to be, you know, your guests already said that, I mean, has to be a drastic reason for the children to be removed from the home. So let's find out why. Let's find out why we missed this. Let's prevent the next one. And you know what, Fran Longwell?

I volunteered to go try this case. And one of the first things I'm going to tell the jury is, as he's being led to the police cruiser, the father, I hate even calling that because he doesn't deserve it, he didn't go, quick, take me, do whatever you need to, just get my daughter to the ER. Save her life. Please. Instead,

he's saying, I'm innocent. That's it. I never locked my daughter in a cage. That's what he had to say. Yeah, that was totally disgusting. But you know, I think it's a little peculiar that for some reason, an older sibling decided to give her a bath that day. And then her body temperature is so low. Isn't it possible that she basically was already in a coma almost because of her body temperature and they were putting her in the bathtub to try to heat up her body. I had a case where a little girl died and they were heating her body up with a hair dryer before they took her in.

Because they didn't want someone to know she had died already. Yeah. If that's why they were trying to clean her up. Yeah. Because they thought she was already dead. Joseph Napsha joining us, Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Where does the case stand right now? What's happening?

They have a preliminary hearing in court next week at the local magistrate's office, in which, as you know, Nancy, they'll be able to, the state will present some evidence to try and deface a case against the couple and, you know, very likely would be held for trial in the Fayette County court so they're they are in jail you know awaiting this hearing and the children as I understand were we were taken in protective custody you know I was researching the case last night Joseph and I remember the couple had just been arraigned, and I thought it said, and were being denied food. I think that that was just wishful thinking. It was they were denied bond. Right, they were denied bond, yeah. I'm just trying to figure out

how soon is a jury going to put a noose around the necks of these two? Well, we'll see. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.