Couple arrested for keeping young children in makeshift cages, police say
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB/Gray News) - A couple arrested for allegedly keeping their two children, ages 6 and 2, in makeshift cages were employed by the University of Florida.
Dustin Huff, 35, and Yurui Xie, 31, were arrested on Friday on charges of child abuse and child neglect, police said. University of Florida officials confirmed they worked for the university and are on administrative leave.
A webpage removed from the university’s website stated Xie, hired full-time in June 2019, worked as the Plant Pathology Department’s safety manager. A removed page for Huff, hired full-time in December 2017, described him as a biological scientist who worked for the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department.
According to the arrest report, the investigation began after a 6-year-old told his teacher that he did not want to go home because his dad built a cage to lock him in while his mom worked.
As part of a Department of Children and Families investigation, officers responded to Huff and Xie’s home. Officers said the couple kept a 6-year-old boy in a cage made out of a wooden bed frame whenever he wasn’t at school.
Xie and Huff would leave the child alone in the house, according to the arrest report. They told investigators the cage had been in their child’s room for a year.
Officers found a second makeshift cage in the closet of the master bedroom used for the couple’s other child. Both cages had rails and springs that could cause harm to the kids if they moved inside.
“It doesn’t always mean that child is doomed for life,” Jamie Saunders, a lead therapist for the Child Advocacy Center of Gainesville, said about children experiencing trauma. “Healing can happen, you know, just as difficult, as complex trauma can be, and as hard as it can be to hear these stories it’s also important to focus on the resilience part and the level of hope that can happen just through building healthy connections.”
