This case comes through a time of increased attention in Texas on child abuse and neglect, particularly of those in the care of CPS, noting that the between 2009 and 2014, the Austin American-Statesman reviewed nearly 800 child abuse deaths.

Across the street from the townhouse at 8105 Chipping in San Antonio, 2 children were allegedly chained up in the back yard of their home, on which terms the mother, Cheryl Reed, 34, got arrested and charged with two counts of injury to a child.

Bexar County sheriff’s spokesman James Keith said that the two children, along with six others found inside the home, are in state custody, though so far the six other children showed no signs of physical abuse.

Authorities have described the case as “horrific” and “sickening”, the two kids were found tied up with 10 feet between them, dehydrated and hungry, suffering from 2 weeks-old bodily injuries. The boy and the girl were found in bad condition, with signs of failed fleeing attempts on their torn clothes.

Recalling that an arrest warrant was issued on Thursday for the husband, Dorch who told investigators earlier that he didn’t report his wife, Reed, after seeing her “whip both children with a switch from a tree on multiple occasions” because he found no good reason to do so, saying it wasn’t his place to report child abuse because he’s not a ‘’snitch’’ and he’s not “God”.

Reed who is also currently pregnant, and mother of six children who were found unharmed inside the house, arrived during the night and was arrested. The house, located in the Camelot II subdivision, had only a couch for furniture and reeked with the stench of backed-up toilets, scrambled clothes across the floor and no parent at home.

Texas officials weren’t aware of the family before one neighbor heard a child’s cry and reported.