Two married scientists at the University of Florida allegedly locked their children up in cages while they went to work.
Details of the case
Dustin Huff, 35, and Yurui Xie, 31, were taken into custody after their six-year-old son said he ‘did not want to go home because the father built a cage to lock him in while the mother worked’, according to an arrest report obtained by ClickOrlando.com.
Cops investigated the couple’s home in Gainesville, Florida, and found a wooden cage with bolts outside the boy’s bedroom, the report states.
Victim impact statement
The boy told police that he was caged in overnight and had to wear diapers until 7am when it was ‘time for school’, police said.
He also said that Xie would lock him in the cage after school before she left the house until Huff returned from work.
Statement from police
Investigators also discovered a makeshift cage in the bathroom closet of the couple, that turned out to be an upside down crib allegedly used to contain their other child, aged 2.
The crib had loose wiring and metal springs that could cause injury, cops said.
The six-year-old boy ‘demonstrated that in order to place (his sibling) in the upside-down crib, you had to pick the front of the crib up and place (his sibling) in the upside-down crib,’ wrote police.
He added: ‘I didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. I just didn’t want to be in the cage.’
The couple showed their homemade cages ‘as if it were all normal’, said cops.
‘I’m not used to walking in and seeing a cage where children are kept at night and of course when home alone,’ said Gainesville Police Sergeant John Pandak, according to Fox 35.
Case of child abuse
Huff and Xie were arrested on December 8 and charged with child neglect and two counts of child abuse.
They are being held on $600,000 bonds each.Both biological scientists have been placed on administrative leave, the University of Florida told ClickOrlando.com on Thursday.
The crime comes nearly four years after a pair of grandparents allegedly imprisoned their young grandchildren in wooden cages attached to their beds at their home in Smiths Station, Alabama.
