Friends defend couple charged in child abuse, say children were 'much loved'
JOSHUA TREE, Calif. - The plywood shelter is covered with tin and an aqua kiddie pool.
Twigs and mattress stuffing line the roof, apparently for insulation. Nearby, in this remote stretch of desert just outside Joshua Tree National Park, canned food sits on shelves beneath a camping stove. There is a trampoline and many children's toys, bikes and storybooks on the ground.
A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy was patrolling here this week when he discovered a family with three children living in the shelter.
The children, 11, 13 and 14, slept for four years in the 4-foot-tall makeshift home of about
