Boy In Closet Looked Like "Holocaust Victim"
P H O E N I X, June 11 -- The 7-year-old boy who had been locked in a closet by his parents looked like a "Holocaust victim," according to the police officers who discovered 36-pound Isaac Loubriel in a closet surrounded by his own feces and puddles of urine.
Phoenix police officers Ben Baltzer and Christi Carlton were dispatched to the boy's home Sunday after his grandmother called the police department and expressed concern about the boy's well-being.
But the officers weren't prepared for what they found when they opened a small closet.
"His hair was falling out from the malnutrition and he had sores on his arm where he had been balled up in the fetal position in puddles of urine," said Carlton on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "He had dry skin on his back, his skin was falling off," she said.
The parents of the young boy, Melanie Loubriel, 28, and Ricardo Loubriel, 39, say they kept him in the closet because he was misbehaving, police said.
‘Being Bad’
"They told us that Isaac was in there as a form of discipline and that he was being bad and she [Melanie Loubriel] stated again when we got Isaac out of the closet, she said, 'tell him you're from there because you're being bad,'" Baltzer said.
Police say they believe the boy may have been in the closet since January. When he arrived at the hospital he ate fruit, vegetables and cookies after drinking a 20-ounce bottle of water.
The Loubriels are being held in the Maricopa County jail on charges of abusing Isaac Loubriel, who is now in state custody.
Since the shocking discovery, several people have come forward, saying they had called Child Protective Services numerous times on the family.
The Loubriels' former landlord, Samantha Lagarda, 33, said she reported the parents to CPS four times in five years.
"The kids always looked hungry," Lagarda said. "But both the parents were fat. They ate well."
Police say they don't understand why Issac, who was found in nothing but a dirty diaper, was being kept in the closet. Four of the couple's six children lived in the home, but only Isaac was injured.
Related Stories
ABC News Live