Missouri Parents Charged After Children Found ‘Alone’ in Dirty 14th Floor Apartment With Open Window

Two children were found alone inside a dirty St. Louis apartment after witnesses allegedly saw one of them near an open window on the 14th floor.

KMOV reported on Tuesday, July 14, that Desiree Ching, 32, and David Croft, 31, were each charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child after police were called to an apartment building in St. Louis on July 13 for a welfare check.

According to the report, witnesses told police they saw one of the children hanging from an open window.

Officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department knocked on the apartment door but did not get a response, prompting them to enter the unit, according to KMOV. After entering, they found a bedroom door that had been locked from the outside. The children were discovered in the room “completely naked and alone.”

“The walls of the room are covered in feces and there is a broken window which exposed the children to a 14-story drop,” police wrote, per ABC affiliate KTUL.

Investigators added it was “clear” the children had been locked inside the room for “at least several hours.” Both children were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Ching, who has pleaded not guilty, remains held at the St. Louis City Justice Center without bond. Croft was initially taken into custody on a no-bond warrant. A judge later reduced his bond after establishing that the kids were under Ching’s care while he went to work that day. Police did not release further details about the children’s condition.