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Parents charged with child endangerment after boys found wandering in Nemacolin

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A Cumberland Township couple is facing felony child endangerment charges after their two children were found wandering around Nemacolin last month wearing only diapers.

Officers were called to Pershing Boulevard in the village shortly after 7 p.m. July 17 when a motorist said he saw the two boys, ages 3 and 6, walking in the road.

Cumberland Township police later found the boys with their uncle, James Barnhart, who had them in his SUV and told officers where the children lived. Police followed Barnhart as he brought the children back to their home at 243 Grant St., when they spotted their mother, Ashlee Williams, who told them she was “going to get them they were just with me,” police wrote in court documents.

When they arrived back, the children’s father, Kenneth Williams, opened a door to the SUV and tried to pull the boys from the vehicle while shouting at them that “you’re going to get me in trouble,” police wrote in court documents.

A caseworker from Greene County Children and Youth Services was contacted and the boys, whom police said were covered in dirt, were placed in the care of a neighbor.

Cumberland Township police Thursday charged Kenneth Williams, 47, and Ashlee Williams, 31, with two counts each of felony child endangerment.

They were arraigned later in the day by District Judge Lee Watson and released on $10,000 unsecured bond before their preliminary hearings Aug. 14.

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