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Two Utah parents have been charged with child abuse after they allegedly restrained their three adopted boys with zip ties, locked them in a dark room and restricted access to food, water and a bathroom.

Diane Seifert Waldmiller, 40, and her husband, Matthew Earl Waldmiller, 39, are each charged in 2nd District Court with three counts of child abuse, a second-degree felony, for causing "serious physical injury upon a child" between Nov. 1 and March 22.

An anonymous complaint filed March 17 sent a case worker from the state Division of Child and Family Services to the couple's Roy home, near 5800 South and 2400 West, on March 22. The case worker told police the bedroom where the boys — ages 7, 10 and 11 — slept had "no decoration or clothing and had nothing but three twin mattresses without any bedding laying on the floor," court documents say.

He added that there was no lightbulb in the light fixture, the heat vent had been covered "so that no ventilation entered the room," and the room's only outside window had been painted black and "screwed shut so it would not open."

The bedroom door locked from the outside, the case worker said, and the children told him they were locked in the room nightly, their hands secured with zip ties, faces covered in tape and diapers fitted to the two younger boys.

The children told the case worker that they "have to exit through their window to 'dumpster dive' at a local elementary school to get food," documents state.

The next day, the case worker returned to the home with a police officer, who confirmed that the door locked from the outside; the case worker also discovered "what appeared to be fingernail scratches on the interior side of the door," documents say. The room and carpet had a "strong odor of feces and urine," an officer reported, and black mold was growing on the baseboards of the bedroom.

But the black-painted window was then unsecured and open, the officer said, and bed frames had been installed under the mattresses, which then had bedding on them.

Matthew Waldmiller told police that the lightbulb had been removed but that he had since replaced it, and both parents admitted to restraining the 7-year-old with zip ties "a couple of times" during the night. Diane Waldmiller "turned over" to the officer hundreds of unused zip ties and a roll of duct tape, documents say.

During an interview at the Ogden Children's Justice Center, the 7-year-old said the Waldmillers had placed tape over his eyes, mouth and hands "300 times," according to documents. He said his hands had been zip tied multiple times, which caused bruising on his wrists. He said his brothers sneak out of the home to get food.

The 10-year-old disclosed that the parents required him to perform physical exercises to earn food and to read. He said if he cried, his clothing was thrown away. He told interviewers that his younger brother's wrists would be tied by both parents "for safety" .

The 11-year-old said the boys are given "night pills" to sleep and that the Waldmillers use a 2-by-4-inch piece of wood to spank them. He told investigators he had escaped the house through the window to "dumpster dive," but when Matthew Waldmiller caught him, the father forced him to eat rice with cayenne pepper and salt on it as punishment. The boy added that he is not permitted to drink anything after 6 p.m. and reported that he had been "hog tie[d]" with zip ties by Matthew Waldmiller and Diane Waldmiller and was put in a suitcase for a month.

He also said that Diane Waldmiller hits him on the nose and causes it to bleed, documents state.

According to a medical examination by a nurse practitioner at the Children's Justice Center, the 10-year-old had symptoms of edema on his legs, a bump on his head, pressure sores on his hands and bruising in various places. The 11-year-old had four marks that looked like fingers on his inner bicep. The two younger boys had ligature marks on their wrists consistent with zip ties. All three had bald spots on their scalps and were underweight.

During individual interviews, Diane Waldmiller and Matthew Waldmiller told officers they had locked all three boys in the room for 10 to 13 hours without breaks. Both said they had tied all three boys' wrists with zip ties about 30 times. Both also said they had used duct tape to cover the children's faces, "leaving only their nose exposed" — 10 times by the mother and 10 to 15 times by the father. Diane Waldmiller said removal of the tape may have caused the boys' hair loss.

Matthew Waldmiller also admitted to feeding the children rice with large amounts of salt and cayenne pepper as punishment, documents say.

Roy police Sgt. Matthew Gwynn confirmed that the couple also had custody of a 2-year-old girl at the time, but police do not believe she had been abused.

The Waldmillers were licensed foster parents with the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, but they had adopted the boys at the time of the alleged abuse, said Utah Department of Human Services spokeswoman Allie Jurkatis. To become licensed in 2013, Jurkatis said, the parents passed an FBI fingerprint search, a criminal records search and a search for any previous child abuse or neglect cases. The checks are completed annually, and the Waldmillers' license had been in "good standing," with no agency actions against them, she said.

The Waldmillers are being held in the Weber County jail, each in lieu of $30,000 bail. A scheduling hearing is set for Thursday.

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