Wind Advisory
from SAT 12:00 PM MST until SAT 10:00 PM MST, Western Pima County including Ajo/Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tohono O'odham Nation including Sells, Upper Santa Cruz River and Altar Valleys including Nogales, Tucson Metro Area including Tucson/Green Valley/Marana/Vail, South Central Pinal County including Eloy/Picacho Peak State Park, Southeast Pinal County including Kearny/Mammoth/Oracle, Upper San Pedro River Valley including Sierra Vista/Benson, Eastern Cochise County below 5000 ft including Douglas/Wilcox, Upper Gila River and Aravaipa Valleys including Clifton/Safford, White Mountains of Graham and Greenlee Counties including Hannagan Meadow, Galiuro and Pinaleno Mountains including Mount Graham, Chiricahua Mountains including Chiricahua National Monument, Dragoon/Mule/Huachuca and Santa Rita Mountains including Bisbee/Canelo Hills/Madera Canyon, Santa Catalina and Rincon Mountains including Mount Lemmon/Summerhaven, Baboquivari Mountains including Kitt Peak, Kofa, Central La Paz, Aguila Valley, Southeast Yuma County, Gila River Valley, Northwest Valley, Tonopah Desert, Gila Bend, Buckeye/Avondale, Cave Creek/New River, Deer Valley, Central Phoenix, North Phoenix/Glendale, New River Mesa, Scottsdale/Paradise Valley, Rio Verde/Salt River, East Valley, Fountain Hills/East Mesa, South Mountain/Ahwatukee, Southeast Valley/Queen Creek, Superior, Northwest Pinal County, West Pinal County, Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, Tonto Basin, Mazatzal Mountains, Pinal/Superstition Mountains, Sonoran Desert Natl Monument, San Carlos, Dripping Springs, Globe/Miami, Southeast Gila County

Deputies: Couple held children captive in basement

Image 1 of 15

A DeKalb County couple faces disturbing accusations after deputies arrested them on child cruelty charges and allege they locked two children in a basement.

According to the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, 38-year-old Tamara Raychell McGowan and 42-year-old Thomas Charles Young kept two children in the basement of a home on North Hairston Road for hours on end. Warrants allege the couple only fed them "noodles" once a day.

The alleged abuse happened between June 2017 and the end of April of this year.

The warrants state the couple exposed the children to drugs and performed sexual acts in front of them. One warrant states Young tried to force the children to perform sex acts on him.

Deputies with the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office Sex Offender Unit found the couple sleeping in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Walmart.

McGowan and Young were booked into the DeKalb County Jail on multiple charges including cruelty to child-first degree deprive, cruelty to child-first degree pain, criminal attempt sodomy, cruelty to child second degree and simple assault fear.

"Ain't no kids been locked here in no basement...that's a damn lie. they've never been in my basement," said Arthur Lee Dyers, Young's uncle, who said the children nor the couple ever lived with him, and the abuse in the basement never happened.

"I've known Thomas from a little boy, he had nothing to do with no kids like that," Dyers said.

The court has not set a date for the couple's first appearance before a judge.