Malnourished twin teenagers escaped from handcuffs at their Texas home after one found a key in his mother’s purse and hid it in his mouth until it was safe to flee, according to U.S. court records.
The 15-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, said they were handcuffed in the laundry room, NBC reported.
The boy, who found the keys to the restraints, said they waited until their mother and her boyfriend were asleep before escaping, according to court documents filed in Harris County.
Representatives from Harris County Police Precinct 5 Office were called to a Cypress home around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“The twin siblings were bruised, barefoot and partially clothed. The siblings said they were starving,” court records said.
The teens suffered months of abuse at the hands of their mother and boyfriend, starting in July, the documents say.
The police office said the teens were subjected to abuse, including being forced to drink bleach or spray oven cleaner in their mouths and pour bleach on their skin, including their genitals, if “they talked too much”. cause burns.
The teens were also beaten with extension cords, curtain rods and metal rods, according to court records.
The mother is at risk of being charged with aggravated battery and aggravated battery of a previously convicted family member, records show.
Court records say the mother’s boyfriend could be charged with continued domestic violence.
After authorities located the teens, a police office spokesman said this week that they only figured out during office hours that they fled because the siblings had only recently moved there. Which home.
When the deputies finally went to their mother and her boyfriend’s house, they were gone.
An alert was then issued to her five other children.
Louisiana State Police said the couple was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon during a traffic stop in the Baton Rouge area and arrested on fugitive charges in Harris County.
A teenager was in the car with the couple, state police said. Five other children who were later dropped off at a relative’s house near Baton Rouge were identified and their whereabouts were unknown, police added.