Boy, 15, found caged in flooded basement where he was kept among animal waste for years

A couple has been charged after the skeleton of a child was discovered buried in their back garden and a teenage boy was found imprisoned in the basement.

Arrest warrants for Michael Anthony Gray, Sr, 63, and wife Shirley Ann Gray, 60, said the 15-year-old boy had been confined to the partially flooded basement for years, reports Knox News.

Their two other children were said to be often locked inside a wire dog cage.

Police had been alerted to the home in Roane County, Tennessee, on Friday after one of the children was seen riding a scooter alone, Attorney General Russell Johnson said.

The couple appeared in court yesterday via video link having been charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, three counts of aggravated child neglect and one count of abuse of a corpse.

According to reports, Michael Gray has admitted to burying a child, estimated to be 10-years-old after she died in 2017, as well as confining the teenage boy.

He had reportedly been found without running water and amid human and animal waste - having been locked away from the outside world since around 2016.

"[The child] was confined to the unfinished basement since this date and had no contact with anyone outside the basement, only given small amounts of food, being white bread and some water," the warrants reportedly state.

The skeleton was found buried under a barn on Saturday and has been taken for autopsy.

Warrants state the girl had also been locked in the basement but died within a few months, with the body initially stored in a cardboard box.

The two other kids were occasionally locked inside the cage in the basement as well as in a specially built concrete room under the stairs, the documents state.

The Grays are not the children's biological parents but did have legal custody of them, Mr Johnson's office said.

An investigation into a child abuse and neglect case is also ongoing.

"District Attorney General Russell Johnson stated that he does anticipate further charges and that ‘there is still more forensic evidence to be analyzed by the investigators and forensics experts which will still need to be reviewed by the prosecutors,’” Mr Johnson's office stated, reports WBIR.