Girls escape parents after months in captivity, police say
November 27, 2013 -- Updated 1704 GMT (0104 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Police say they arrived to find two sisters who had escaped, one locked in bedroom
- Report: Girls said they ran to neighbor's house to escape knife-wielding stepfather
- Girls tell police they may have been held captive for as long as two years, report says
- Parents face charges of child abuse and kidnapping, stepfather faces sex abuse count
(CNN) -- Two girls claiming they'd been held captive for many months in "filthy living conditions" told police they ran to a neighbor's house to escape their knife-wielding stepfather, according to a Tucson, Arizona, police report.
When police responded Tuesday to a report of a domestic incident involving a knife, they found a third sister, a 17-year-old, locked in a bedroom, the report says.
"Upon arrival, officers contacted two juvenile females, ages 12 and 13, who had (run) to the neighbor's house alleging that their stepfather had attempted to break into their bedroom while brandishing a knife," the report said.
"During the course of the investigation, it was alleged by the girls that they had been imprisoned in their bedrooms for at least the last several months and possibly up to two years."
The girls were "extremely dirty" and told police they hadn't bathed in at least four months, the report said.
"They were kept in filthy living conditions and allegedly only being fed once a day," it added.
The stepfather, Fernando Richter, 34, and the mother, Sophia Richter, 32, were arrested and booked into the Pima County Jail.
Sophia Richter faces three counts of kidnapping, three counts of child abuse/emotional abuse and three counts of child abuse/physical abuse. The stepfather faces the same charges, plus an additional count of sexual abuse with a person younger than 15, according to the report.
No comments:
Post a Comment