A Tennessee couple was arrested last week after deputies found seven kids living in a home they described as “deplorable.”
Jason Hoffer, 27, has been charged with child endangerment and aggravated child abuse, while Amber Hoffer, 28, was charged with child endangerment, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
The children, who ranged in age from 1 month to 7 years old, were taken to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital for an evaluation.
According to WVLT, the invetigation began early last Tuesday morning when deputies received a call about two young children stnading in the wood line near Clear Springs Road. Deputies responded and discovered the two kids, both near 6, living in a nearby home with the Hoffers.
Warrants say one of the children had severe bruising on his leg, and both of them told deputies they had not eaten and were hungry.
According to a warrant, the Hoffer home and the seven children there were living in “very deplorable and uninhabitable conditions” with trash all over the floor and feces smeared on the walls and in the bathroom sink.
There was no running water in the house.
Deputies and the Department of Children’s Services spoke with the children at the hospital and learned from one child that Jason Hoffer kept him in a padlocked “cage” in the middle of the living if he got in trouble. The child said that Hoffer would hit him with a metal pole through the cage and had “severe welts” on his hip and bruises elsewhere that “appear to have been from an assault.”
The boy told deputies that he escaped the cage Tuesday morning and convinced another child to leave the house with him.
When deputies went back to the home, they found a metal dog kennel, the warrant says. The Hoffers had no pets living inside or outside the house.
The court documents did not say how the children were related to the Hoffers but said they were removed from the home by DCS.
According to jail records, Jason Hoffer is being held on a $55,000 bond and has a preliminary hearing set for August 14. Amber Hoffer is no longer listed in jail records.
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[Featured image: Jason and Amber Hoffer/Knox County Sheriff’s Office]
