DENVER — Wayne Sperling, 66, and Lorinda Bailey, 35, were taken into custody last week, after a search of the couple’s apartment found their sons, aged 2, 4, 5 and 6, living in an apartment amid cat feces and swarming flies. The boys had appeared to be malnourished and unable to communicate with humans except by grunts. 

Police were alerted of the situation after Bailey took the two-year-old to an emergency room to be treated for a head laceration, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The treating physician noted that the boy was filthy, “non-verbal” and reeked of cigarette smoke. Police made a welfare check on the couple’s east Denver apartment after learning that there were three other boys in the household.

When police arrived at the home, they contacted Sperling, who was there with the three other boys. Police said they found the boys making “infant-like noises” and none had been toilet trained.

The boys were taken into protective custody, and a physician who examined them told investigators that all of them had “delayed verbal skills,” had not had regular medical check-ups or up-to-date immunizations, were not toilet trained, and were suffering from malnutrition.