Man accused of beating, using dog shock collar on kids

PHILADELPHIA -- (WJW) -- A married man beat and abused his two young children for years, even shocking them with an electric dog collar and jamming small blades under their nails, and fractured his wife's skull in an assault that sent her to a hospital, prosecutors said.

Joseph Myhre punched, kicked, choked and otherwise abused the boy, who's now 13, and the girl, who's 11, over the past six years, authorities said. He repeatedly struck the children with a wooden dowel or PVC pipe, shocked them with electric collars and stuck lancets under their fingernails and toenails, authorities said.

The children's rooms contained “closed-off wooden boxes for beds with a small opening and vents to let in air,” Lower Providence Township police Detective Reginald Nealy Jr. said in an affidavit of probable cause.