What are the charges against Katie Koch and Joel Manke? Naked boys who escaped captivity 'didn't know the outside existed'
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Two feces-covered young boys acted as if they had "never seen the sun” after escaping from their "horror movie" house where their mother had kept them captive for years. Multiple neighbors called 911 on July 13 when they noticed the two brothers, aged just seven and nine, wandering naked in the streets like "cavemen," covered in blood, bruises, and excrement.
The neighbors told authorities how the boys climbed through the window onto an air conditioning unit before jumping into the yard and walking down the street stark naked. Following the 911 calls, the boys were rushed to hospital and their mother Katie Koch, 34, and her boyfriend Joel Manke, 38, were taken into custody on a raft of serious charges for allegedly imprisoning the two children in their Milwaukee home for years. Koch is currently facing four felony counts and two misdemeanors connected to child neglect and false imprisonment while Manke has been slapped with four felony counts. According to the criminal complaint, responding officers described the boys’ home as a “terrible hoarding situation,” with feces covering the walls.
'They were walking different'
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Mallory Davis noted that a 13-year-old girl, who first witnessed the boys, described their condition as like "naked cavemen" who acted "as they had never seen the sun before." Another neighbor Christine Eder, who lived across the street, said the siblings looked like "they had never been outside before. If they have been, it's been a very long time." “They were just walking differently. Their hair looked like it had never been brushed, never been cut. They didn't know the outside existed,” she told the reporters, according to the Mirror. When asked what she knew about Manke and Koch, Eder said, "Absolutely nothing. I never saw her or him. Ever."
At Milwaukee County intake court, the Assistant DA noted that the boys spent much of their lives in their rooms, where the windows were boarded up and the doors locked from the outside. “It was something out of a horror movie,” Davis said, adding, "These children have been horribly damaged from their mother's actions. They are completely uneducated. They are not potty trained, even at their ages. They are, essentially at this point, unable to function in society." Koch, whose hair was also badly matted in her police mugshots, "admitted that the home is not habitable," and said "her boys deserve better," according to WDJT.
'Koch stated that she ‘f**ked up'
Manke, the stepdad, revealed in police interviews he knew that how the children were living was not right, but that he had to "pick his battles" with Koch to avoid arguments. Manke stated that he never contacted police or schools to report the children because he doesn’t believe in "doing that to family members,” he added. “Koch stated that she ‘f—ed up'” and knew “her boys deserve better,” the affidavit said of her interview under oath. Koch was given a $30,000 cash bail, which authorities claim she is unable to pay. Manke's cash bail was set at $6,500 and it is unclear if he has paid it. Their preliminary hearings are set for July 26.