Naked, flea-bitten kids found locked in filthy room filled with flies, Ohio cops say

Two young children were found locked naked and alone in a dirty bedroom Friday while their mother was at work, police say.

Police in Toronto, Ohio, responded to the home after a neighbor saw a young boy leaning out of a second-story window and throwing clothes into the alley below, the Steubenville Herald-Star reported.

After no one answered the door, police used a ladder from the fire department to climb into the bedroom through the window, according to WTRF. Inside, they found a disturbing scene.

“I immediately got sick to my stomach,” Sgt. Derrick Piatt told the outlet. He said the bedroom was filled with garbage and “hundreds of flies.” The room was otherwise bare save for a filthy mattress, according to WTRF.

The children, ages 2 and 3, were both naked, WTOV reported.

There was no food or water in the room, according to the Herald-Star, and first responders later called the children “malnourished and covered in flea bites,” WTRF reported.

Piatt tried to open the bedroom door for other officers, but couldn’t get it open, WTOV reported. Officials discovered the locks had been placed on the other side of the door, only accessible from the hallway.

An extension cord had also been wrapped around the door handles preventing the children from leaving the room, according to the Herald-Star. Officers had to cut the wire to get it open, WTOV reported.

Officials contacted the kids’ mother, Marcisha Ortiz, 27, who said she’d been at work in nearby Weirton, West Virginia, since 5:30 a.m., according to the Herald-Star.

Police say she told them that her kids last ate on Thanksgiving and didn’t respond to inquiries as to why the children were left unsupervised, WTOV reported.

“She was more worried about what was going to happen to the cats and spiders that she had as pets,” Piatt told WTRF.

Child protective services are investigating the incident and seeing to the children, the Herald-Star reported.

Ortiz was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of children and possession of drugs, according to WTOV.

Toronto is roughly 85 miles southeast of Akron near the West Virginia state line.