Wisconsin Couple Accused Of Starving, Torturing 15-Year-Old Girl
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Feb 16, 2012 7:40PM
Madison police have arrested the father and stepmother of a 15-year-old girl who was found wandering barefoot in her pajamas, weighing just 70 pounds. Authorities say the girl had been tortured and starved, forced to live locked up in the house's unfinished basement.
A passersby named Mike Vega saw her walking down a busy street and pulled over when he saw her bare feet, purple from the cold. She said she needed help, and he noticed bloody scrapes and a large bruise on her forehead.
The girl said her stepmother had let her out of the basement to do some work. The stepmother became angry with her and threw her down the stairs. The girl escaped out a window.
The teen told Vega the stepmother threw her back downstairs but she managed to escape out a window. Vega said the girl told him she feared the woman would throw her down the stairs again. She said the woman even threatened to kill her.
The girl said her parents had kept her in the basement since 2006, and an alarm would sound if she tried to come upstairs. She had to scrounge for food, sometimes forced to eat her own feces and drink her own urine.
She told authorities that she had to ask her stepmother for permission to eat, drink water or use the bathroom upstairs. She said if she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up.
The police report shows the girl's father tried to provide medical explanations for the girl's physical condition, but a doctor diagnosed it as "serial child torture with prolonged exposure to definite starvation." Another doctor said the malnutrition the girl suffered "poses a significant risk of death."
The girl was not enrolled in any public or private school. The girl's two younger step-siblings have also been taken into protective custody. An adult step-brother was arrested on a probation and parole hold.
Two neighbors say they have previously tried to report the abuse to the police. The AP writes:
Mark Stuntebeck, who lives next door to the family in Madison, said he called child protective services within the last two years after he saw the girl taking out the garbage and scavenging through it to find food. He doesn't know if anyone ever followed up with the girl's family.
Another neighbor said she called protective services because the girl "was treated like Cinderella." The police report shows authorities were also contacted in 2007.
An unnamed party alleged the girl may have been molested by a family member. The girl did not corroborate the allegation during the investigation by the MPD. At the time, she appeared healthy, and her family was unwilling to cooperate with a MPD detective.