Parents Allegedly Kept Adult Son with Autism in Cage

A teenager with autism was found locked in a caged bed in a home in Michigan’s Thumb area earlier this month, and two adults who lived there appeared in court Tuesday on felony and misdemeanor charges.

Karen S. Tolin, 65, and Timothy E. Tolin, 66, were arraigned in Huron County District Court Tuesday, each on single charges of unlawful imprisonment, a 15-year felony, and third-degree vulnerable adult abuse, a 2-year misdemeanor, The Saginaw News/MLive reports.

The Tolins, who WNEM-TV said were the autistic man’s parents, had been arrested Monday. Authorities obtained warrants after deputies answering a civil dispute on Oct. 20 found a 19-year-old adult male confined to the cage bed inside a home that sits on a Paris Township acreage known as Tolin’s Acres of Angels. Paris Township is about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

The Tolins take in other special-needs individuals, according to reports. Michigan Department of Human Services personnel removed three other adults and two children from the home., which is not a licensed care facility, but a private residence, DHS spokesman Bob Wheaton said.

A neighbor who talked to WNEM said he and others who financially supported the special needs home during neighborhood fund-raising drives felt betrayed, as if they’d received a “slap in the face.”

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Screenshot, WNEM-TV video