Cruel list of rules for abused girl, 11, found ‘whipped, starved and wearing a diaper’
A STARVED 11-year-old was found in a filthy trailer with a set of rules on the wall after telling a teacher she was only allowed to eat rice, cops say. Her custodian, Margaret Breeze, 47, has been charged with kidnapping, assault and child endangerment. The girl weighed just 47 pounds (3.3 stone) when she was […]
A STARVED 11-year-old was found in a filthy trailer with a set of rules on the wall after telling a teacher she was only allowed to eat rice, cops say.
Her custodian, Margaret Breeze, 47, has been charged with kidnapping, assault and child endangerment.
The girl weighed just 47 pounds (3.3 stone) when she was found in September, significantly under the average weight for a girl her age.
She was whipped, put in a diaper and forced to sleep on a urine-stained mattress inside a locked trailer in Ohio monitored by a camera, cops say.
Shocking photos shows inside the rubbish-strewn trailer where cops believe she was isolated and mistreated for at least the past three years.
A set of 11 rules under the heading “reality check” were found taped up on one of the walls in the backyard trailer.
One of the commandments states: “Shut your mouth and open your ears”.
Number four on the list says “life IS NOT fair”, while another reads “being told no is a part of life, GET OVER IT”.
Officials were alerted to the alleged abuse inflicted on the home-schooled girl after a teacher noticed red flags when she was taking an online test.
The teacher picked up on the fact that the girl was struggling to concentrate and asked her what was wrong.
The girl told the teacher she was hungry and was only allowed to eat a small plate of rice each day.
Officials with the county children services agency found the girl wearing a diaper, detective Quinn Carlson said.
Brown County prosecuting attorney Zac Corbin added: “(She) was barricaded and there was video surveillance that was watching inside that trailer.”
“It’s just a wonder she got out of there when she did,” he said. “Where she was kept, it was not livable.”
The family denied abusing the girl and said they kept a camera in her room because she would attempt to get out of the house.
The girl spent two weeks in hospital after she was rescued.
She was diagnosed with a disorder called Kwashiorkor which is brought on by severe malnutrition and usually only seen in people experiencing famine.
The girl is doing much better now and has gained about 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms), authorities said.
She had been living with Breeze since she was six-years-old after a court in Kentucky granted her custody.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether they were related.
Breeze home-schooled the girl and last took her to a doctor when she was aged eight, he said.
Records from that visit showed she weighed 51 pounds then, meaning she had lost four pounds during the past three years, Corbin said.
Investigators are continuing to look at whether there are other suspects or people who could have helped the girl, Corbin said.
Breeze’s husband Charles has also been taken into custody.
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There were other children living in Breeze’s main house nearby, but there were no signs they had been mistreated, he said.
Those children also have been removed from the home, a converted church that sat alongside a cemetery.
Authorities did recover recordings of the child being yelled at and threatened, but it’s unclear who was yelling, Corbin said.