Inside West Virginia house where two-year-old twins were imprisoned by ... trends now
This is the 'hell-on-earth' house where twin toddlers were locked up and starved by their cruel 'throuple' parents – leaving one little boy on the brink of death.
Images obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com lay bare the squalid, feces-strewn bedroom where the two-year-olds were caged for days at a time and fed just ground beef and Cheerios slid to them underneath the door.
Their heartbreaking plight emerged Monday when one of the brothers was taken to a hospital in Jackson County, West Virginia, with kidney failure.
The youngster had not had anything to drink for days and had passed out because he was so severely dehydrated and malnourished, according to cops.
Parents Lylee and Michael Gillenwater are in custody after police found one of their twin boys at 'death's door' following months of abuse, authorities said
This is the 'hell-on-earth' house where twin toddlers were locked up and starved by their cruel 'throuple' parents in Ripley, West Virginia
The boys' 6ft by 8ft room was dark and dingy because of black-out curtains blocking the window, DailyMail.com images reveal
The bedroom door has a white plastic lock on the outside so it can't be opened from inside
'The room appeared to only have two small crib style mattresses laying on the floor that were completely soiled with urine and feces,' the complaint states
DailyMail.com's exclusive pictures show a child-size mattress, several plastic trays and a dozen or more soiled diapers littering the floor
Cheerios, a diaper and a stuffed animal were seen on the floor inside the Rolling Meadow Village apartment
The basement of the home was cluttered with toys, debris, clothes and a mattress
The Gillenwaters and warped 'live-in boyfriend' Brian Casto could face tougher prison sentences because of an unrelated murder that happened seven years earlier – in the exact same house.
Emmaleigh Elizabeth Barringer
The trio are accused of keeping twin boys locked up and neglected at their shared home address on Meadowlark Lane in Ripley, West Virginia.
One boy is still fighting for life after suffering renal failure.
Benjamin Taylor
In a gruesome coincidence, DailyMail.com has learned the three-bed duplex on a public housing project was also the setting for the unrelated murder of a little girl in 2016.
Benjamin Taylor, 38, is serving life without parole for beating and sexually assaulting ten-month-old Emmaleigh Elizabeth Barringer there in October 2016.
Her mother, Amanda Adkins, walked into the basement to find Taylor kneeling over the unconscious girl with his shirt off and pants unbuttoned.
Amanda Adkins
He claimed he 'blacked out' and couldn't remember what happened but jurors took just two hours to find Taylor guilty.
The horrifying murder prompted the West Virginia Legislature to pass 'Emmaleigh's law' in 2017 which increases the sentence for a person convicted of child abuse causing death from 10 to 40 years to 15 to life.
If the twin boy fighting for life in the Gillenwater case loses his battle, the law would apply directly to his alleged tormentors.
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Michael Gillenwater, 24, and his wife Lylee Gillenwater, 21, were arrested and charged with child neglect, along with 22-year-old Brian Casto – described in court documents as Lylee's 'live-in boyfriend.'
Investigators from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department say the accused trio drugged the kids to make them sleep – because being parents was too much of a burden.
'The average barnyard animal would probably provide better parental care and nurturing than what these kids were afforded,' Sheriff Ross Mellinger said, announcing the charges.
He added: 'These boys need lots of prayers right now. The one boy is stable. There are still a lot of hurdles to clear medically to see if he's even going to survive or not.'
In a gruesome coincidence, DailyMail.com can reveal the three-bed duplex in Ripley, 30 minutes north of Charleston, was also the setting for the unrelated murder of a little girl in 2016.
Benjamin Taylor, 38, is serving life without parole for beating and sexually assaulting ten-month-old Emmaleigh Elizabeth Barringer in October 2016.
Her mother, Amanda Adkins, walked into the basement to find Taylor kneeling over the unconscious girl with his shirt off and pants unbuttoned.
He claimed he 'blacked out' and couldn't
