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Charges certified against Gloucester couple accused of caging child

Posted at 1:27 PM, Dec 15, 2011
and last updated 2011-12-15 14:22:51-05

GLOUCESTER COUNTY, VA (WTVR) - The Gloucester County couple accused of caging their daughter appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Attempted capital murder and felony child neglect charges were certified to the grand jury against Shannon and Brian Gore.

Both of the charges are in reference to their alleged treatment of their 6-year-old daughter after deputies searched the couple's house in connection to a robbery in April. That is when they discovered the girl extremely malnourished and locked in a cage.

Additionally, the judge dropped the felony murder charge against the couple pertaining to the body of the infant found buried in the yard.

The remains were so badly decomposed that a cause of death could not be determined. There was no evidence that a crime had been committed since neither child had any prenatal or postnatal care nor had ever been to the doctor.

An investigator took the stand and talked about the conditions in which deputies found the little girl.  was found caged in an inverted crib with no legs, with boxes stacked on top.

Additionally, officials said the girl had Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy.

The emaciated girl was found with bald spots and indentations in her buttocks from where her heels dug into her rear-end due to the position she remained in around the clock.

However, the couple said they fed her sippy cups of milk and pop tarts daily, but the child was very emaciated and resorted to eating her own flaking skin and mucus.

The charges against the couple will go before the grand jury on Jan. 3.