Two Missouri parents are facing child endangerment charges after police discovered their young children — ages 3 and 5 — locked alone in a feces-covered room with a broken window that exposed them to a deadly 14-floor drop.
Officers responded to an apartment building on N. Grand Boulevard in St. Louis on July 13 after witnesses reported seeing one of the children hanging from an open window. When police arrived and received no response to knocking, they entered the unit.
What they found inside was deeply disturbing.
A bedroom door had been locked from the outside, preventing anyone inside from escaping. When officers opened it, they found the two children completely naked and alone. The walls of the room were smeared with feces. A broken window in the room left the children exposed to an open drop from the 14th floor.
Investigators determined the children had been left in those conditions for at least several hours. Both were transported to the hospital for treatment.
Desiree Ching, 32, arrived at the hospital and identified herself as the mother. She was subsequently arrested and taken to the St. Louis Justice Center, where she remains held without bond. She faces two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
David Croft, 39, identified himself as the father when he later arrived at the apartment. He told police he had left the children in Ching’s care before heading to work that morning. Croft was arrested but released on his own recognizance. He also faces two counts of child endangerment.
The condition of the children following their hospitalization has not been publicly disclosed. It also remains unclear where Ching had gone after leaving the apartment.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the case.