Pennsylvania Couple Arrested, Tried To Starve Their Three Kids To Death, Did Not Want Them Anymore

A Pennsylvania couple has been arrested for starving their children almost to the point of death.

According to Penn Live, Joshua Ross Weyant and Brandi Jene Weyant were arrested Friday and charged on 18 counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy. The 33-year-old man and 38-year-old woman are being accused of starving, beating and severely neglecting their young kids.

The Pennsylvania State Police and Dauphin County Children and Youth Services discovered the children, aged 6, 5, and 4, in horrific health after responding to a December 16 complaint of child abuse. The emaciated and weak children all weighed below 30 pounds and were carrying cuts and bruises. The 6-year-old weighed 27.3 pounds. The 5-year-old weighed 23 pounds while the 4-year-old weighed 26 pounds.

Joshua Ross Weyant & Brandi Jene Weyant: How we beat and starved our three kids cause we no longer wanted them https://t.co/HNwPU5DAhe

— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) December 25, 2016

According to the Daily Mail, two of the children were less than seven days away from certain death. Police revealed that the father did not want to care for them anymore and was deliberately depriving the children of food, hoping that they would die.

The children told investigators their parents began starving them for long stretches of time in September. They said they were locked in a bedroom without heat despite the freezing weather. In between time, they were also violently assaulted by their parents. According to a report, the victims “were infested with lice so severe that the children screamed when the lice were physically removed from their bodies by medical personnel and investigators.”

They were immediately transferred to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and admitted into emergency care for “advanced medical treatment.” The parents are being held at the Dauphin County Prison on a $1 million bail.

This is not the first time that a couple would deliberately starve children to death. Andrea Dusha and Michael Wright took their unresponsive 23-month-old daughter to hospital, claiming she was sick. The Pennsylvania couple was later charged with her murder after an autopsy revealed the little girl had been reportedly starved to death, according to People.

According to a police report, the parents of Lydia Wright had taken her to a hospital and allegedly told doctors that she was drinking “a mixture of water, Gatorade and pedialyte from a sippe cup,” after which her eyes ” rolled into the back of her head, foam began to emit from her nose and mouth, and she quit breathing.”

The autopsy showed that the girl’s death was as a result of dehydration and malnutrition. The medical examiner revealed that the toddler was underweight, weighing just 10 pounds when an average toddler weighed between 20 and 25 pounds.

According to the Inquisitr, another child succumbed to starvation days after her parents had died of an alleged drug overdose. Chelsea Cardaro, 19, and her boyfriend, Jason Chambers, 27, and their 5-month-old baby, Summer were all found dead at their Pennsylvania home on Thursday.

According to a coroner’s report, the parents had been dead for over a week before their bodies were discovered. An autopsy revealed that the infant had died after several days due to starvation and dehydration. The 27-year-old man had died in the living room on the first floor of the Kernville residence. His girlfriend had passed out in a second-floor bathroom.

Pennsylvania: Five-Month-Old Baby Starves To Death After Both Parents Die Of Suspected Drug Overdose https://t.co/7dJsy10VdG

— The Inquisitr (@theinquisitr) December 24, 2016

The baby was discovered in a bassinet in a bedroom on the second floor. Reports say the couple died within minutes and could not call for help. Toxicology tests for both adults could take as long as eight weeks. Yet, authorities said even though they are only suspecting the couple died from overdoses, there was evidence of drug use at the scene of the tragedy. Neighbors had not seen the family since December 11 and thought they were out of town.

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