Naked brothers who escaped feces-covered home looked like ‘cavemen’ who had ‘never seen the sun before’: court docs
Two young brothers imprisoned in their feces-covered Wisconsin home raised the alarm by smashing their way out of a window — walking naked through the street like “cavemen” who’d “never seen the sun before,” according to distressing court documents.
Multiple neighbors called 911 after seeing the boys, aged 7 and 9, walking naked outside their Milwaukee home last Thursday, according to a criminal complaint detailing multiple felony charges against their mom, Katie Koch, 34, and stepdad, Joel Manke, 38.
The boys were bruised and blooded and had so much feces in their hair it had to be shaved off later in a hospital, the affidavit said.
A 13-year-old girl told cops that she saw a “naked person walking on the sidewalk like a ‘caveman,'” the document stated.
“Like they had never seen the sun before,” the same young witness also told WDJT, while another neighbor who’d been there 30 years said he had no idea there were even kids in the house.
Responding cops described the boys’ home as a “terrible hoarding situation” — with feces covering the walls and so much trash officers “had a difficult time seeing the floor.”
The 7-year-old boy was put in a diaper, and the boys’ bedroom had a lock outside as well as boarded-up windows, the affidavit said.
“It was something out of a horror movie,” Assistant District Attorney Mallory Davis told an initial hearing for the mom and stepdad, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“These children were essentially confined to their room for much of their lives.”
Manke, the stepdad, admitted in interviews to boarding up the windows and locking the boys in their room, the affidavit said.
He “stated that he knew how the children were living was not right but he had to ‘pick his battles’ with [their mom] Koch to avoid arguments,” officers stated.
“Manke stated that he never contacted police or schools to report the children because he doesn’t believe in doing that to family members.”
The mom, meanwhile, admitted that the boys never went to school and had not been checked by a doctor in years.
“Koch stated that she ‘f—ed up'” and knew “her boys deserve better,” the affidavit said of her interview under oath.
Davis, the prosecutor, told the couple’s hearing that the boys are “completely uneducated” and not even potty trained, according to WDJT.
The parents face more than 40 years in prison if convicted of multiple counts of neglect and false imprisonment, the outlet said.
“These children have been horribly damaged from their mother’s actions,” Davis said.
“They are, essentially at this point, unable to function in society.”
https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/katie-koch-joel-manke-arrested-for-child-abuse-after-letting-sons-live-in-feces-filled-home/