This aerial image provided by KDFW-FOX4 News shows part of the property where deputies found young, malnourished children locked together in a dog cage near Rhome, Texas. Photo / AP
A North Texas couple is in custody after four malnourished children were found in deplorable conditions at their rural home.
Andrew Joseph Fabila and Paige Isabow Harkings are each charged with four counts of criminal child endangerment. Both are 24.
Harkings also is charged with one aggravated assault count.
Investigators
found the children, all of whom are age 5 or younger, in a barn outside the family home and just metres away from plentiful food kept under lock and key.
Two of the old children were locked in a 90-by-90cm cage, while two younger children were found outside the cage but only partially clothed and smeared with feces and urine.
