A young boy, aged four and diagnosed with autism, was discovered confined in a room where he was found attempting to create art by using his own excrement.

The boy’s parents were taken into custody following a distressing revelation made by the police who were initially responding to a reported altercation between the couple.

Joshua Vincent Moore, 40, and Kayla Renee Spruill, 37, have been charged with neglecting their son, who is autistic and non-verbal. The child was reportedly kept in a room secured with two gates.

As per a legal document accessed by WDTV, law enforcement officers were called to the residence by the couple’s 18-year-old daughter regarding a possible domestic violence episode involving her parents.

Upon questioning about other children in the household, the daughter directed the officers to a bedroom blocked by two gates instead of a door. Inside the room, they found the young boy, described as having nonverbal autism by the daughter. She allegedly informed the police that her parents had confined the child in the room “for [their] own safety.”

The Upshur County Sheriff’s Office reported that the boy was discovered unclothed with blue marks on his feet and mouth. Food remnants were found on the bed, and it was noted that the child had been trying to paint the wall with his feces.

The daughter asserted that she had been asked to skip school to attend to her brother as Moore was at work and Spruill was absent. She also alleged that physical altercations between her parents were frequent.

Spruill purportedly confessed that she and Moore would secure their son in the bedroom for safety reasons. After detecting the smell of alcohol on Spruill’s breath, the deputies conducted a breathalyzer test which revealed a BAC of 0.1, exceeding the legal limit of 0.08. She disclosed to authorities that she had consumed alcohol at a friend’s house the previous day after work before returning home the next morning.

Moore stated to the deputies that he woke up at 3:30 am, smoked marijuana, and left for work. He returned home around 1:30 pm.

According to their daughter, it was routine for her parents to smoke marijuana, engage in video games, and leave her brother confined in the room unattended.

Both Moore and Spruill were apprehended and are currently detained at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $25,000 cash bonds each. They are set to appear for a preliminary hearing on March 13.