A Brazilian woman and her two now grown children have been freed by police after being held captive by the family’s father for 17 years. The police found the family after an anonymous tip in the neighborhood of Guaratiba in western Rio de Janeiro.
“The two youths, who are the children of the woman and the suspect, were tied up, soiled and starving,” the city’s military police said on Friday. The father has been arrested.
According to local media, the children in the family are now 22 and 19 years old. They were chained when the police found them. They were taken to the hospital with their mother. According to local emergency services, all three victims were “severely malnourished and dehydrated”. The children would therefore look like eight to ten year olds, writes the news site G1.
The mother is said to have told police that she and her children sometimes went without food for three days and that they were regularly physically and mentally abused by her husband, to whom she had been married for 23 years. According to her, she wanted to divorce her husband, but he allegedly told her that she could not leave his house “until she was dead”. He also did not allow her to work or for the children to go to school.
Local residents of the family also said to authorities that the suspect was known in the area by the nickname ‘DJ’, because he would regularly put on loud music. Presumably he did this so that the screams of his victims could not be heard.
According to child protection services in Rio, the case was reported to the Public Prosecution Service and the police two years ago, but no action was taken.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#Brazilian #family #detained #starved #father #years