Amanda Joliff (l.) and her boyfriend Richard Smith (r.) kept her 14-year-old son locked in a room in the couple's mice-infested trailer.
Authorities say it was only after a 14-year-old boy's mother took a trip from their northern
Colorado home that they discovered he had allegedly been kept locked in a filthy room in a mice-infested trailer for most of three years.
Police acknowledged Friday that they previously had visited the home but saw no prior signs of abuse.
The boy, described by his mother as "developmentally delayed," was found hiding under a neighbor's porch Sept. 27 in
Erie, Colo., after his mother and her boyfriend left for
New York.
Authorities said that after she returned, she allegedly told officers that a lock found on the plywood door to the boy's room was installed because he had once run away.
Police say she admitted to locking him up when she got upset with him or when he was in trouble.
According to an arrest affidavit, the boy told police that his mother,
Amanda Joliff; her boyfriend,
Richard Smith, and the boy's sister had kept him locked in the room under Joliff's orders since early 2008.
Joliff, 36, and Smith, 31, have been jailed on charges of false imprisonment, child abuse and neglect.