Log In | Register
When the malnourished 15-year-old awoke each morning, she could hear her family eating and getting ready for the day. If she felt especially brave or desperate she would call to her stepmother and beg for food, but usually she just went back to bed and hoped her hunger pangs went away.
The girl was 70 pounds when she was rescued. She told investigators during lengthy interviews at the hospital that most of the food she ate was scraps she found on the floor or in the garbage. She had spent most of five years in the basement of her family's Madison home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted.
The girl told investigators the abuse started the month she turned 10. Her stepmother beat her, and her stepbrother repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex on him. That's also when the family began keeping her in the basement.
Because it had no bathroom, she said she often bathed in a basement sink that had no hot water and relieved herself in boxes or containers. If she made a mess while doing so, "they will make me eat it. Or drink it or rub it on my face,"
Starved Wis. girl's statements detail her life - Yahoo! News
Article Source: Yahoo! News- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (9)
Neighbors expressed concern. One called authorities after watching the parents scream at the girl as she was forced to push cement blocks from one side of the yard to the other for no apparent reason. However, the parents blocked county workers from speaking with the girl.
How does one block county workers from speaking with the girl without the police being called?
She was found naked in a dumpster looking for food.
- 4 votes
#1 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:43 PM ESTSally,
It I put it under technology, it was my error. I would never have put it there.
I'm speechless at the horror this girl went through. I wish her the best!
- 7 votes
#2 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:02 PM EST"What children in captivity tend to do is figure out whatever they have to do to survive. So we should never be surprised when children don't do heroic things, when they don't try to escape. It's pretty clear that this girl was in a situation in which she had no power, in which every aspect of her life was controlled."
Children of trauma are in different circumstances than adults in trauma. It's one reason I don't usually read comments on these articles, because I can't hardly stand to read comments from those who judge children as adults. It's an actual re-traumatizing sometimes worse than the first one.
As anyone who has ever been through any trauma as a child can attest, albeit not as severe as the girl in this article, the shame factor especially when you're not believed or when it's discounted (there now, you know your parents love you) feels worse than the original trauma and mostly is not worth risking. It's just different for children who have no power to take care of themselves.
- 7 votes
#3 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:10 PM ESTshame factor especially when you're not believed or when it's discounted (
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Again step parents are involved. How many cases we see with either a boy friend, or a step family involved...not saying that there isn't abuse and incest in families because there definitely is.
- 2 votes
#4 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:21 PM ESTI don't "get it"!!! Why are the father and stepmother not facing MORE years?? That is so wrong. Those people should be punished with at least 30 years in prison, not just a slap on the wrist.
Her father and stepmother have been charged with child abuse, child neglect and reckless endangerment. The charges carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 11 years, 3 months. The girl's 18-year-old stepbrother is charged with child abuse and child sexual assault and faces 68 years behind bars if convicted.
- 6 votes
#5 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:55 PM ESTat least 30 years in prison
--in solitary confinement and forced to starve and eat their own feces...
- 4 votes
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
