Jess David [photo top] was battling a heroin addiction four years ago,  when she asked an ex-boyfriend  Joshua Weyant [photo below ] to take care of her three children. She now says “I failed them in every possible way”

Joshua Weyant  justified locking the children up in joyless rooms saying “They would get out a lot and destroy everything.”

It is reported that the children also endured physical abuse in addition to the severe malnutrition. They recount  getting punched in the face so hard a tooth got knocked out and getting locked inside a toyless room with no heat source at night, where the kids resorted to urinating on themselves and on the floor. Queried about the inhumane treatment, Joshua Weyant would justify the nightly imprisonment by saying, “They would get out a lot and destroy everything.”
When the children were finally brought out of the home by authorities, their core body temperatures hovered around 94 degrees, with medical officials stating they showed signs of hypothermia and weak heart rates.

It is believed that none of the victims are biological children of the couples’, although two of them legally, are Joshua Weyants children. The children came into their lives when their biological mother, Jess David, needed someone to watch them as she battled a heroin addiction.
David, 31, said she allowed the Weyants to care for her children temporarily as she underwent treatment for heroin addiction about four years ago, and they later took long term custody against her will.
The distraught and emotional mother blamed the alleged abuse of her children on her decision to use drugs rather than make sure her children were being well cared for. “I failed them in every possible way,” she said.
David said she was pregnant with one of the children, a boy, when she became involved in a relationship with Josh Weyant about six years ago. Although Weyant wasn’t the biological father, he signed the boy’s birth certificate, thereby becoming a legal parent, according to David.
David said she and Weyant broke up for a while and she began another relationship, becoming pregnant with a girl, now four. David and Weyant got back together, and he again signed the birth certificate, she said.
About four years ago, David said, she went into treatment for heroin addiction. At that point, Brandi and Josh Weyant offered to take custody of the boy and girl, as well as a third, older child of David’s, until she recovered from her addiction, she said. 

Another document filed four months later, shows jess David asking the court to allow her children live with her.
In the document she wrote:”My children are living in a house with 8 kids and 2 adults. I have not been able to have any contact or visits with my children since Feb. 5, 2013.” 

A peep inside the human pigsty, the Weyants inhabited with the children. Courtesy pennlive

On Tuesday, David said she has wanted them back for several years, but had been unable to track them down, and didn’t know they were living in Halifax Township until a friend told her of the arrest of the Weyants.
“My kids could have died and I wouldn’t have known,” she said on Tuesday. She said her goal is to regain custody of the children. However, she said she had been unable to reach child protection officials in Dauphin County, and the hospital was unable to give her information about their conditions because of privacy laws.
David said she works full time in a pizza restaurant. She had another boy in 2014, has custody of the boy and is engaged to his father, she said. She said she relapsed in 2015, but has been clean and sober since March.
Authorities said they believe the Weyants stopped feeding and caring for the children in September. They said the children were caked in filth and feces when they arrived on Dec. 16 following a tip.