3 Young Children Forced To Sleep On Cold Basement Floor Covered In Feces, Urine: Police
LAKE COUNTY, IL — Authorities investigating a man accused of possessing child pornography ended up finding his three young children — all who were under the age of 3 years old — living in horrid conditions in Fox Lake last month.
The children were removed from their parents' care and placed with a relative by the Department of Health and Human Services after police determined they'd been forced to sleep on the cold concrete in the basement, which was covered in urine and animal feces, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The children had also been "crawling" among "massive amounts of animal fecal matter," according to court documents provided to Patch.com.
The conditions were so poor that electronic detection canines called to the scene to assist in the child pornography investigation could not be deployed, police said. Meanwhile, both of their parents now face criminal charges.
Detectives have linked the father of the children to the possession of child porn case, which police first began investigating after receiving a tip from an online cloud storage website that showed a device in Lake County had uploaded the child porn to their platform. On Aug. 14, police took Logan J. Jentink, 29, into custody after searching his home in the 0 to 100 block of Woodland Avenue in Fox Lake, according to authorities.
Jentink is expected in court Thursday morning for an arraignment, according to online court records.
During the investigation, authorities learned the family, which included the three young children and their parents, were living in the basement of the home. Authorities also found several animals that were close to death due to malnourishment, according to the news release. The animals included: a bearded dragon, turtle and two dogs, according to a news release.
Lake County Animal Control responded and took custody of the animals, police said.
An arrest warrant was issued for the mother of the children, Sandra J. Zaluski, and she's been charged with three counts of child endangerment and five counts of cruel treatment to an animal.Jentink has been charged with five counts of cruel treatment to an animal and three counts of child endangerment, according to authorities.
Zaluski was released from custody and Jentink remains held in the Lake County Jail pending further court proceedings.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
