Kanyi Okeke
So horrific! Three young sisters say they were locked in their bedroom for two years by their parents and were forced to live in filth. They were only freed when the youngest two were able to escape and find help from their neighbors, who called police for the ‘visibly shaking’ girls.
Sophia and Fernando Richter of Tucson, Ariz. were arrested on kidnapping and child abuse charges yesterday Nov. 26 after their three daughters claimed they were held prisoner in their bedrooms for upwards of two years, and were not allowed to bathe for months. The youngest girls were able to escape after their father allegedly kicked down their door and threatened to kill them with a knife.
The 12- and 13- year-old girls escaped to a neighbor’s house on Nov. 26, and the neighbor called 911. Police found the oldest teen still locked in one of the girls’ home’s bedrooms.
“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,” according to a Tucson Police Department statement. The sisters said that they were fed only once a day, according to AZ Family.
“All three juveniles were extremely dirty … and malnourished and stated that they had not bathed in the last four to six months,” Police Captain Michael Gillooly said of their horrific living conditions. The youngest girl said she hadn’t seen her sisters in years.
Neighbors told police that they did not even realize there were children living in the home, because they had never seen them outside.
All three girls were removed from the home to their safety by Child Protective Services, and their parents face multiple charges. The Richters each face three counts of kidnapping, three counts of child abuse/emotional abuse, three counts of child abuse/physical abuse. Fernando Richter also faces one count of sexual abuse with a person under 15 years of age, according to AZ Family.
