Photo Courtesy of Matthew Seedorff/Twitter
Texas officials arrested a mother and her boyfriend for abusing her teen twins, who managed to escape the abusive home and get help.
KHOU 11 reported that the 16-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, escaped their abusive household and ran for help. Ring doorbell footage captured the teens going door to door for over half an hour as neighbors declined to assist the unknown twins. An anonymous woman in a close subdivision finally answered her door and ushered the teens inside her home after seeing them in a poor physical state.
“They were so skinny and so frail,” the woman told KHOU. “They just looked like they had been through a lot.”
The two were barefoot and shivering due to dropped temperatures, and the boy was shirtless. The twins explained the abuse they endured in their mother’s house to the lady.
“They told me that their mom kept them locked in the laundry room, naked, zip tied from the ankles and handcuffed from the wrist,” the woman said.
The good samaritan gave the teens blankets and food before calling Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office.
When questioned by authorities, the twins told them their mother prohibited them from using the bathroom, forcing them to be surrounded by their feces. They bathed with dirty mop water and had to drink their urine.
Sources claim they were so thin their bones protruded from their skin. The twins were malnourished, with cuts, scars, and bruises covering their bodies. The boy had a fractured bone that had healed.
“They would only feed them a sandwich– only if they were quiet the whole day. If they made any type of noise, they wouldn’t be fed,” the woman said. “How a mother could do this to her kids, and I feel like my tears are out of frustration, anger and sadness.”
Police issued an AMBER Alert after arriving at the house and discovering the mom, 40-year-old Zaikiya Duncan, and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jova Terrell, gone along with five other children between the ages of eight and 14.
The couple was discovered and arrested in Baton Rouge. They were returned to Houston on Thursday, where they will be charged with injury to a child. At the time of arrest, Duncan and Terrell had one child with them in Baton Rouge and told authorities that the other children were with relatives. All seven kids were placed in Child Protective Service custody.
Duncan was reportedly arrested for child abusten10 years ago after a then 5-year-old of hers was transported to a local hospital from school to be treated for burns all over his body.