A West Cocalico Township man and woman charged with endangering a teenage boy by forcing him to live in a wooden shed for months without basic needs will have their cases proceed to county court after waiving their preliminary hearing earlier this month.

Daryl Jay Sensenig, 41, and Grace Louise Sensenig, 42, waived their preliminary hearings before Judge Clark Bearinger on Sept. 4, each on a single count of endangering the welfare of children. Daryl Sensenig is also charged with simple assault.

Together the couple are accused of forcing the 16-year-old victim to live in a wooden shed about 100 yards away from their residence in the 800 block of Laurel Ridge Road where he was deprived of basic needs for months.

While in the shed the victim did not have access to regular showers or a functioning bathroom and was forced to pay for his own food using money earned from a part-time job. The couple only allowed the victim to shower inside the residence once a week, but he otherwise had no running water other than an outdoor hose and was forced to dig a hole to defecate and then wiped himself with leaves.

The couple had forced the victim into the shed in mid-March, where he remained until police investigated the property in late July as punishment for what they told police were previous inappropriate behaviors.

Police were dispatched to the property the afternoon of July 30 after Daryl Sensenig had tackled the victim to the ground when the victim had refused to go back to the shed.

Both defendants are currently free on $30,000 unsecured bail. As a condition of their bail, neither defendant can have unsupervised contact with the victim and cannot live with the victim.

Ephrata Borough Police Officer Marcos Rodriguez-Muriel filed the charges.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lapp will prosecute the cases.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.