A young mother has been held by US police after her two children were found living in a wooden crate in a cave near Kansas City.
Brittany Mugrauer, 24, was charged on Friday night with two counts of felony child endangerment.
Her four and six-year-old children were discovered on the outskirts of the Missouri city in an eight foot by 10 foot crate - missing one side - that contained car seats, two small blankets and rubbish.
The younger sibling was using their hands to eat a dirty dry cup of noodles when police arrived, detectives said.
Asked by Jackson County officers why they were not wearing any shoes, the children responded that they didn't have any.
They were taken to hospital where they were evaluated, bathed and given clean clothes.
Mugrauer told investigators her children had been living in the cave for several days and acknowledged leaving them there alone, a probable cause statement says. She was taken into custody Friday afternoon and has not yet appeared in court.
The extensive network of caves is the product of massive limestone mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
