Colin KalmbacherApr 16th, 2021, 1:35 pm
A Florida couple was arrested after allegedly imprisoning and starving three teenagers over the course of months–while the rest of the family apparently had ample food and space to share.
“There was a chain lock on the door to the bedroom shared by the three victims,” St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy
Brian Hester said during a Tuesday press conference. “The three teenage victims weighed well below the accepted standard for their ages.”
Oscar Torres, 40, and his wife,
Brittany Kirschenhofer, 32, were arrested on Tuesday morning after a months-long investigation that began in early February of this year following a tipster’s anonymous complaint.
Florida couple arrested for horrific abuse of 3 teens
The case was one of the most appalling examples of child abuse Deputy Chief Brian Hester said he had ever heard of in his 26 years in law enforcement.
Credit: St. Lucie Sheriff s Office Author: Claire Farrow Updated: 10:55 PM EDT April 14, 2021
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. A chain lock kept three teenagers trapped in their shared bedroom for long hours at a time, and they were minimally fed for months, the St. Lucie County Sheriff s Office said.
It was one of the most appalling examples of child abuse Deputy Chief Brian Hester said he had ever heard of in his 26 years in law enforcement.
Florida couple arrested after 3 teens found locked inside home, fed sparingly in horrific case Some of the most appalling examples of child neglect, chief deputy says
A St. Lucie County couple is accused of locking up and starving three teenagers inside their home for months in what investigators called a horrific case.
By: Scott Sutton
and last updated 2021-04-14 15:00:46-04
FORT PIERCE, FL â A Florida couple is accused of locking up and starving three teenagers inside their home for months in what investigators called a horrific case.
The sheriff s office held a news conference Tuesday morning to announce the arrests of Oscar Torres, 40, and his 32-year-old wife Brittany Kirschenhofer of Port St. Lucie in the case.
The three teenage victims weighed well below the accepted standard for their ages,” chief deputy Brian Hester said in a news conference.
The abused teens are children of Torres and three of five total children who lived inside the home. Detectives said they were treated “much, much differently” than the other two children, but would not go into details about why that was the case. Statements made by one of the victims indicated that some physical abuse did occur to at least one of the three victims, Hester said.
Investigators said one of the teens weighed just 50 pounds while having lost muscle control and other bodily functions. Officials said the teens were attending virtual school and had not left the home since December.