Teen’s 911 Call Leads Police to Nonverbal 4-Year-Old Locked Alone in Bedroom, Covered in Blue Stains

An Upshur County couple has been taken into custody after authorities discovered their four-year-old autistic and non-verbal son locked inside a room alone.

According to local CBS affiliate WDTV, deputies from the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office initially responded to a 911 call on March 5 from the couple’s teenage daughter reporting a domestic violence incident in the house. When officers arrived at the home, they allegedly found the child confined to a room secured with two gates.

Joshua Vincent Moore, 40, and Kayla Renee Spruill, 37, were charged with child neglect creating risk of injury.

The Upshur County Sherrif's Office said deputies found the four-year-old child naked with blue stains on his feet and mouth. Some food was found on the bed, and deputies discovered that the child had been “attempting to finger paint on the wall with his own feces.”

Moore and Spruill told investigators that the child often tried to escape, so he was confined for his own safety. They said that their son was “non-verbal and autistic”, according to court documents.

Additionally, the couples 18-year-old daughter told deputies that she was asked to skip school to take care of her brother because Moore had to work and Spruill was not home. She also said physical altercations between her parents were common.

According to The Inter-Mountain, when deputies questioned Moore and Spruill about the domestic violence incident, Spruill said Moore accidentally hit her in the face with a cellphone, causing a “small laceration” to her bottom lip.

Deputies administered a preliminary breath test (PBT) after noticing that Spruill smelled of alcohol, and the result was about 0.1. According to WDTV, she told deputies that after work she went to a friend’s house, where they shared a bottle of wine before she returned home the next morning.

Moore told deputies he woke up around 3:30 a.m., smoked marijuana, and then left for work. He said he returned home around 1:30 p.m.

Their daughter told authorities that it was common for her parents to smoke marijuana, play video games, and leave her brother locked in the room alone.

Moore and Spruill are now being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $25,000 bond. They are scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing on March 13.