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News

california house parents held children prisoner *may trigger?**

112 replies

shakeyourcaboose · 16/01/2018 07:20

Just woken to news on radio of house in California where police have rescued a family of 11 children whose parents have allegedly chained them to beds and walls after the eldest 17 yo girl escaped. Horrible.

OP posts:

Report

Battleax · 16/01/2018 07:23

I'm not sure she was the eldest girl, even, (DC ranged from 2 to 29) but she's a brave young woman. Maybe it was just that she was the one who found herself not properly secured? It's hard to imagine.

AuntieStella · 16/01/2018 07:27

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42698562

All 13 were kept captive, and some were chained. The 17 year old - who was so emaciated her age was initially thought to be about 10 - escaped and contacted the authorities.

BBC article contains a photo of them all in matching dresses (ugh)

Bluemugajug · 16/01/2018 07:31

Such a bizarre story as there are photos of them, where the youngest looks about 6 months old, enjoying a holiday at Disneyland. All look healthy and normal. This must be a fairly recent situation.

How brave of the girl. The parents look like utter nut jobs tbh

hollyisalovelyname · 16/01/2018 07:46

The neighbour's said '........they were suspicious of the situation.' to quote an article on Sky News app.
So why did they not inform the authorities ?
It took an escaped 17 year old to call the police.
What a brave girl.

shakeyourcaboose · 16/01/2018 08:59

Just read news link as well, the Disney picturevis only 2016 so either well hidden issues or a rapid deterioration?

OP posts:

Lovemusic33 · 16/01/2018 09:14

Does seem really odd due to the photos of them at Disney with the children looking healthy and well dressed (or so it seems). Not the first time something like this has happened though, there are several similar stories but not with so many children. The 17 year old was very brave, she must have been petrified, scared of what will happen if they caught her. She has saved her siblings. I hope they are getting all the help they need and that the media keep away from them so they can recover and get the help they need to get through this.

thethoughtfox · 16/01/2018 09:16

This is one of the problems with people being allowed to homeschool with no oversight at all and completely withdraw their children from public life.

SuperBeagle · 16/01/2018 09:21

How bloody strange.

Just had a look at the parents' shared FB. All dressed in identical clothing, identical hairstyles etc. It reminds me of those FLDS cults with the prairie dresses etc.

Even if the captivity only began in 2016, I'm quite sure something was amiss with this family long before that. Poor kids.

MycatsaPirate · 16/01/2018 09:22

7 of the children are between 18 and 29. That suggests massive control issues in that house.

God, those poor kids. Seemingly the people who found the 17 year old thought she was 10.

BluePheasant · 16/01/2018 09:30

Feel for the neighbours. They must be feeling awful that they didn’t realise how bad it was. But it does sound like they came across as an odd family rather than anything sinister. Reports say children were seen at times doing things in the garden.
The recent photos are very weird too. Seems to suggest perhaps the situation has developed gradually, becoming more and more extreme to the point they were no longer allowed to leave at all.

metalmum15 · 16/01/2018 09:31

God that is just weird. How truly awful for those kids. I agree the parents look like nut jobs, wtf is up with dads hair?!

metalmum15 · 16/01/2018 09:42

Just had a look at the fb page, even though the kids are all smiling, none of them look healthy, they're all ridiculously skinny, the older ones look emaciated, and some of the pictures are several years old. Dad looks well fed though.

BluePheasant · 16/01/2018 09:49

They are all so very pale. Makes you wonder if the fb page was set up as a front to help with the “all is fine” image.

Tinseltower · 16/01/2018 10:07

Something must have been amiss before. It’s very strange the older children in their twenties all living at home, still being dressed like their 5/6 year old siblings.

Lovemusic33 · 16/01/2018 10:09

Some of them look thin but then my kids do but they eat like horses.

Weird how they are all dressed the same in all the photos, like some kind of cult. Very sad that no one noticed what was going on but then fro the outside of the house it looks well kept, expensive cars in the drive, why would anyone suspect anything?

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 16/01/2018 10:15

The pictures are not from 2016. The holiday was at least before 2010 and the vow renewal before 2011.

DearMrDilkington · 16/01/2018 10:31

What a bizarre story, the Facebook page is creepy as hell. Poor kids.

Tinseltower · 16/01/2018 10:39

@whatsthecomingoverthehill I don’t think so. They have 13 children, the youngest being 2. There’s thirteen children in the pictures one who is a baby (the now two year old).

whatsthecomingoverthehill · 16/01/2018 11:07

Tinsel, I've only scrolled down through their fb profile. The earliest vow renewal one is November 2011 and earliest Disney one is October 2010. There are some other pictures as well that might not be as early.

WhatCanIDoNowPlease · 16/01/2018 11:23

There looks like 2 vow renewals as her hair is different. But with the same singer???

Bluemugajug · 16/01/2018 12:29

None of those children look like adults in their twenties in that last photo. Something very very strange has obviously been going on for a while

MoonfaceAndSilky · 16/01/2018 13:46

I've just had a look at those photos on Facebook - very chilling

Crispbutty · 16/01/2018 13:52

Looking at the Facebook photos I would say a few of the older children have additional needs which could explain how the parents managed to keep them controlled. The parents certainly look very odd.

They all look very undernourished too and almost brainwashed. Poor kids.

Clawdy · 16/01/2018 14:03

One of the vow renewal pics is definitely 2016. The thirteenth child is a baby, now two.

YerAuntFanny · 16/01/2018 14:03

It's a shocking story, more so because this was apparently gone on without notice for quite a while.

It can't be easy to keep 13 kids quiet, more so when they're starved and distressed. One can only assume they had given up trying or were so traumatised they couldn't do anything about it. Chilling :(

With that said, I'm not liking that people are now swooping on social media now. Yes, the parents have been named but I think the children still deserve some sort of respect and privacy in the aftermath without armchair detectives trying to discover where it all went wrong based on a few photos. It should all have been locked down/deleted by police, it's a sad state of affairs that this is how society deals with things.

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