Father and Son Kept a 13-Year-Old chained in Their Basement for a Year
A father and his son were
arrested at their Toledo, Ohio, home Thursday after a 13-year-old girl
told police she'd been shackled and chained in their basement for more
than a year, WTOL
reports. Two women found the girl wandering outside the house Wednesday
night, and she told them she'd managed to escape when the men went for a
run.
According to the Toledo Blade,
Timothy Ciboro, 53, and Esten Ciboro, 27, are the girl's stepfather and
stepbrother respectively. The girl told the women who found her outside
that her mom had left her and her two siblings to go to Las Vegas, and
that after her mother left, the girl got in trouble with her stepfather
for "wetting the bed." As punishment, he allegedly "[put] handcuffs on
her ankles" and "[made] her sleep in the basement." She also said she
was forced to go to the bathroom in a bucket while chained.
Police told NBC24
there was evidence in the house to support the teen's allegations: They
found a set of large handcuffs or leg irons in the basement that were
chained to a support beam, as well as a big bucket of ammonia. When
police came to the house to arrest the men, they were reportedly in the
process of putting the two other children in a van and trying to escape.
They'd packed a gun with them.
When police arrested the
Ciboros, they took the girl's siblings as well. Executive director of
the Lucas County Children Services Robin Reese told the Blade
the agency has been aware of the Ciboro family since 2014 when they got a
report that the same girl was eating discarded French fries from a
public park garbage can. All three children had been home-schooled for
years, which is why Reese believes the suspects were able to go
unnoticed for so long.
The
13-year-old and her siblings are physically fine and did not appear to
be malnourished, but police noted the victim's hygiene was poor. The
Ciboros are each being held in jail on $500,000 bond on charges of
endangering children and kidnapping to terrorize or inflict serious
physical harm until their preliminary hearing May 26.
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