DALLAS — Two young children found chained and leashed outside a San Antonio home had suffered hundreds of scars and injuries from months, perhaps years, of abuse, a sheriff’s official said Friday.

Doctors who treated the children after they were found April 29 determined they had old injuries indicating a long period of abuse. One of them also was suffering from hypothermia and had a broken arm resulting from the way she was tied to a garage door using a dog leash, Bexar County sheriff’s spokesman James Keith said. Authorities initially said the children were 2 and 3 years old, but Keith says they may be a year older.

The girl’s brother was found tethered to the ground by a dog chain that was clamped to his ankle. Several piles of human feces were found nearby, and the boy was wet, indicating he was left in the rain.

Keith said the two children, along with six others found alone inside the home, are in state custody. The six other children showed no apparent signs of physical abuse.

The mother of the two children found outside, 30-year-old Cheryl Reed, is charged with two counts of injury to a child with bodily injury and was being held Friday at the Bexar County jail. She was arrested Thursday at a San Antonio motel.

Keith said investigators are still trying to learn the relationship between Reed and two others who have been charged in the matter: Deandre Dorch, 36, accused of injury to a child by omission, and Porucha Phillips, 34, who is facing counts that include injury to a child by omission.

Associated Press