“He looked like a kid out of a concentration camp, skin and bones,” Klingele recollected when he first saw Govi. “We were told he was going to be 7 and size-wise he looked 3 maybe.”

Govi weighed just 17 pounds and couldn’t walk, barely talked, and was covered in excrement.

Starved of nutrients, the boy had lost hair on his head, his bones were brittle and bowed from rickets, and the fatty tissue on his bottom had wasted away. Medical staff said Govi wouldn’t have lived much longer if he hadn’t been rescued that night, as reported by the Kansas City Star.

There was no blanket, no toys, the boy had just been left up there, authorities believed his mother put him up there to hide him away.

Perez is currently serving an eight-year prison term for attempted murder over the treatment of her child.

Six years later the officers who found Govi that day were reunited with him and couldn’t believe the transformation.