A Texas mother and her boyfriend were arrested after being accused of allegedly abusing the mother’s twin children.
According to KHOU, 16-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, escaped their abusive home by running door-to-door in their neighborhood earlier this week. The twins were handcuffed, the boy had no shirt on and they were both without footwear when a woman in the neighborhood opened the door for them.
Zaikiya Duncan, 40, and Jova Terrell, 27, were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both were charged with Injury to a Child (1st Degree Felony)
and will be brought back to Houston on Thursday.An unidentified woman, who looked after the teens until authorities arrived, gave them food, wrapped both of them in blankets, and called police officers
from the Harris County Constable Precinct 5.“They were so skinny and so frail. They just looked like they had been through a lot,” the woman said. “They told me that their mom kept them locked in the laundry room, naked, zip tied from the ankles and handcuffed from the wrist.”
Investigators interviewed the twins and were told that they weren’t permitted to use the toilet and were forced to drink their own urine. They lived in the laundry room surrounded by feces. Both twins were reportedly
malnourished and extremely thin, with their bones visible. They discovered that the boy had at least one fractured bone that had healed and both were covered with bruises, cuts, and scars all over their bodies.“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 officers went to the home where the boys were held captive, but the couple wasn’t there. There were five other children, ages 8 to 14, who also lived there, but none were present when deputies arrived, so they issued an AMBER Alert.
When the couple was caught, they only had one of the children with them. The other four boys had been discovered with relatives in Louisiana. Now, all seven children have been placed in Child Protective Service custody.
Duncan was previously arrested and charged due to alleged child abuse.
Louisiana court documents from 10 years ago reveal that a then-5-year-old child of Duncan’s was taken to the hospital from his school to be treated for multiple burns to his feet, genitals, and other parts of his body. Doctors determined it was probably the result of being burned by hot water.