3 Arrested For Locking Up 5-Year-Old Girl In Small Dog Cage In Oklahoma

Three people have been arrested for the abuse of a five-year-old girl who was allegedly locked up in a small dog cage in Nicoma City in Oklahoma.

Family members of the child, 63-year-old Charles DeRonda and 59-year-old Mary DeRonda, have been charged with two counts of child neglect. They were booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on Monday.

Another suspect, identified as 46-year-old Jeremy Cook, has also been charged with child abuse. In an update released on Monday evening, the police shared that Cook had also been taken into custody.

Cook, who is absconding, also used to lock up the child in the cage, the police said as per KOCO-TV. He also has a warrant pending on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and burglary.

According to the court documents filed on Monday, the child told investigators that she had to lie in a fetal position inside the cage. She also demonstrated it to the investigators.

The cage was small and placed in the living room. Once inside the cage, the child was not given any food or water. She was also not allowed to use the restroom. The documents said she was in the cage "forever and every day," especially when she got into trouble.

Court records showed the home that was filthy with rotting food, trash, insects, and feces everywhere, said a report from KFOR-TV.

"This is probably the worst one I've ever seen especially with the allegations, kept in a dog cage. You don't do that to a child," Lt. Mike Weiss, who works with the Nicoma Park Police Department, said. "The child was being kept in a, put into a dog cage, and kept there for long periods of time, even sometimes with the dog itself."

The authorities were alerted after hospital staff members saw the girl during a family member's visit to the hospital. "During that time, the people at the hospital were concerned about her," Weiss explained.

The girl is now in protective custody.

Just a few days ago, an Ohio woman was sentenced to three years in jail for locking a 7-year-old girl in a dog cage in the basement of her home. Lillian Cottrell, a 29-year-old resident of Canton, tortured the girl for seven months last year and kept her padlocked in the cage as punishment. When the girl was rescued by child welfare officials, she weighed only 28 pounds. She is now in the custody of a family friend who plans to adopt her.