Terror case: 12-year-old boy dies after starving and being abused at home

WARNING: disturbing content

In the United States, a couple was charged with murder after the starving body of a 12-year-old boy was found in their family home.

The Pennsylvania boy, Maxwell Schollenberger, was so starved that he weighed just 21 kg, less than half the average body weight of a boy his age before his death in May.

In what has been described as a case of horror torture, Maxwell was found covered in his own feces, while the windows were sealed with duct tape and the lights in his room.

There was so much human waste in her room that the walls began to mold.

Every item of clothing in her room was covered in debris, and investigators said “claw marks appeared on the child victim’s sheets.”

His door was equipped with metal hooks as makeshift locks, and he was physically and emotionally abused.

Prosecutors arrested Scott Schollenberger Jr and his fiancee Kimberly Maurer and charged the couple with murder.

They allege that the couple kept Maxwell locked up in his room for years.

An autopsy revealed that Maxwell died of a combination of blunt force trauma to the head, hunger and malnutrition.

Doctors said he would have been too weak to walk unaided at the time of his death.

In stark contrast, her alleged killers had other children living in the home, showering them with love, gifts, and attention.

Maxwell’s half-siblings said they had rarely seen the 12-year-old boy and the couple’s friends were unaware of Maxwell’s existence, according to PennLive.

While his siblings went to school and received medical care, the 12-year-old was denied both rights.

“This little 12-year-old boy never knew the unconditional love of a family,” Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said at a news conference.

“Max Schollenberger existed. I will not call this living. He existed in a state of perpetual suffering.

“At the time of his death, he was in that room 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Schollenberger and Maurer have been charged with manslaughter and endangering a minor, and are being held in a county jail without bail.

The other children are now in the care of the state.