Father arrested after children say they were denied food for days, forced to drink shower water

A father was arrested after deputies said his two children were kept inside their rooms for days without food, forced to drink water from the shower and denied access to a bathroom. Wendy Louis, 40, was arrested Tuesday after Miami-Dade Sheriff s Office deputies conducted a welfare check at a home along Northeast 175th Street. When deputies spoke with the children, they said their father would go days without feeding them because he believed the government was putting substances in their food. The children also told investigators they were not allowed to leave their rooms for days at a time, were forced to use a bucket as a toilet and were only allowed to drink water from the shower. Investigators also learned that the children had not attended school since August 2025, when their father withdrew them. The children said they were not receiving any homeschooling. Deputies described both children as extremely small and thin for their ages, with unkempt and matted hair.