Police described a house, which smelled like feces, in “extreme disarray.”

In interviews, two other children gave investigators differing accounts: One said that the cage had been in the house for two weeks, and another said for two years, the report said.

Jeffery Scanlan told police that the boy had autism, was “big and strong” and that “he can be very aggressive when he wants something,” the report said.

The parents said they would clean the house regularly but hadn’t been able to “in a couple of weeks,” police said.

Asked why they hadn’t sought resources for their children with autism, the man told police that the school had directed them but that they didn’t know where to start.

Misty Scanlan told police that the programs didn’t accept their health insurance.

The boy in the cage was hospitalized, while the other three children, who appeared to be OK, were now staying with family of Misty Scanlan, police said.

“Based upon my initial observations,” a detective wrote in the report, “there was reason to believe that the children in the house were not receiving proper care and had been placed in an environment where their health was at risk of being harmed and (they) may suffer unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering as a result of neglect.”

The couple are due in court May 15, according to court records, which do not list an attorney for them.

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(Review-Journal digital content producer Marvin Clemons contributed to this report.)

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