Three people have been arrested in a case of child neglect in West Virginia in which 2-year-old twins were allegedly kept in a locked room for up to six weeks at a time and fed nothing but ground beef and cereal under the door. Jackson County Sheriff Ross H. Mellinger said deputies became aware of the incident on Monday evening when one of the twins was found unresponsive. He said medical staff found the boy to be suffering “extreme” malnutrition and dehydration and was in “complete renal failure,” and would have “a lot of hurdles to clear medically to see whether he’s even going to survive or not.” “Once our officers began their investigation, it was discovered that the twin 2-year-old boys had, basically, been locked in a Hell-on-Earth type of situation within their apartment room,” Mellinger added. He also alleged that the boys’ parents—identified as Michael and Lylee Gillenwater—medicated the children in order to make them sleep. Lylee’s boyfriend, Brian Casto, was also arrested. “I think the average barnyard animal would probably provide better parental care and nurturing than what these kids were afforded through the three adults living in this home,” Mellinger said.
