Mike and Sharen Gravelle denied in a custody hearing Monday that they'd abused or neglected the children ages 1 to 14, with conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. No charges had been filed as of Monday night, and telephones at the county prosecutor's office repeatedly rang busy Tuesday morning.
The children were placed with four foster families Monday and were doing well, said Erich Dumbeck, director of the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services. He said he saw them hugging their new foster parents.
The Gravelles invited a Job and Family Services investigator inside Friday when he stopped by their house outside Wakeman, a city of roughly 1,000 people about 50 miles west of Cleveland.
The investigator spotted a face peering out of one of the cages and alerted authorities, Sommers said. Deputies returned to the house that evening.
The investigator was sent after the county department received a complaint last week. Dumbeck would not say who notified the agency.
None of the children were adopted through Huron County although the family has lived there for 10 years. Most were adopted through other Ohio counties, and two through other states, Dumbeck said, declining to identify the locations. He said his agency was trying to determine how the adoptions originated.
"I don't believe there were any case workers checking in with this family," he said. "These kids were home schooled and they lived in the country where neighbors were spread out."
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