A couple in Florida (USA) were arrested after discovering that they kept three teenagers locked up for months, and whom they had just fed, in a case that St. Louis County authorities said. Lucie has been described as “horrible,” local media reported Wednesday.
Oscar Torres, 40, and his wife Brittany Kirschenhofer, 32, are being held for several hours a day in a room shared by three teenagers, a 17-year-old and the other 16-year-old twins. years, to which they also fed sporadically.
“The three teenage victims weighed well below the age-accepted standard,” Brian Hester, deputy head of the St. Lucia County Sheriff’s Office in the south, told a news conference Tuesday. of the city of Orlando.
According to the authorities, one of the minors rescued weighed only 50 pounds (22 kilos) and suffered from hallucinations, as well as loss of verbal communication, muscle control and other bodily functions.
“All medical assessments confirmed that this condition was a direct result of malnutrition and a feeding tube is needed to try to get the child to gradually return to the age-appropriate level of nutrition,” Hester added.
The officer explained that officers discovered a padlock on the door of the room shared by the three victims, and that the couple stated that they put the locks in the room to keep the dogs contained and so all the children could move freely around the house.
“Statements from one of the victims indicated that at least one in three victims had suffered some form of physical abuse,” revealed Hester, who added that according to the story of one of the teenagers they had to “secretly search for food leftovers”.
According to police, the minors had not left the house at least since December and were attending school classes virtually.
The three teenagers are children of Torres and were handed over to their biological mother, who did not know what was going on with her children as she had been isolated from them, according to police.
The home was also home to two other minors, ages 9 and 6, and biological children of Kirschenhofer, who apparently were not victims of this “terrible case of child neglect,” as Hester said, and have been handed over to relatives.
The couple, who remain in custody without bail, face three counts of child abuse and neglect.
Authorities were alerted to this case on Feb. 10 following an anonymous notice, after which the Florida Department of Minors and Families removed the children from the home on Feb. 22.