LOXLEY, Alabama — A Loxley couple is in custody and the Department of Human Resources is investigating after a 3-year-old child was found wandering the street in the Plantation Hills subdivision on Tuesday, March 15.

Loxley Police Lt. Doug Phillips said officers responded at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday after neighbors reported the child wandering down the street and into their yard.

“They had no idea where the child had come from,” Phillips said. “So an officer began canvasing the neighborhood with the help of the neighbor.”

Phillips said the officer came across an open door on Appomattox Drive.

“He still had no idea if that’s where the child came from,” Phillips said. The officer then called inside the residence, but received no response.

Based on the conditions the officer was able to observe when looking inside the residence, Phillips said, he called DHR. During the time it took for DHR to arrive – approximately 30 to 40 minutes – a man and a woman emerged from the residence.

“They claim that they had been asleep and didn’t know the child had left the residence,” Phillips said.

Once inside, the officer was able to further observe the conditions inside the residence.

“What he found was totally atrocious,” Phillips said. “The conditions inside the home were completely unlivable.”

The officer found food, along with flies and fly larvae, everywhere inside the home.

“Food was stacked on the furniture, on the floor, even in the bathtub,” Phillips said.

The couple, Gabriel Price, 42, and Megan Lamey, 29, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor child endangerment, Phillips said, and taken to the Robertsdale jail facility.

DHR initiated a “safety plan” and placed the child in the custody of a grandparent and will follow up on the condition of the home to decide whether or not it is safe to return the child to its parents.

“The only thing we are uncertain of at this point is whether the door was open or whether the child was able to open the door,” Phillips said.