Parents charged after police find children locked in hazardous room

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested Desiree Ching and David Croft after discovering two young children left unattended inside a 14th-floor apartment in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 13, 2026. Authorities responded to a welfare check in the 600 block of N. Grand Boulevard following reports from witnesses who observed one child hanging from an open window.

Law&Crime reported that police officers entered the residence after receiving no response to their knocks. Upon entry, officers located a bedroom door secured with a lock from the outside. Inside the locked room, law enforcement personnel found a five-year-old child and a three-year-old child completely naked and unsupervised. Official police documents noted that the bedroom walls were covered in faeces, while a broken window exposed the young children to a 14-storey drop. Investigators determined the children had been locked inside the room for at least several hours.

Emergency responders transported both children to a local hospital for medical evaluation. Ching, 32, subsequently arrived at the hospital, identified herself as the mother of the children, and was taken into custody. She was booked into the St. Louis Justice Centre, where she remains held without bond. Croft, 39, arrived at the apartment during the investigation and identified himself as the father. Officers initially arrested Croft, but authorities later released him on his own recognisance after establishing that he had left the children in Ching's care when he departed for work earlier that morning.

Both Ching and Croft face two counts each of endangering the welfare of a child. Police officials have not released information regarding the current condition or custody status of the children following their initial hospital treatment, and court records do not specify Ching's location during the hours her children were left unattended.