An 18-year-old who escaped from a New Jersey home claims she was badly tortured over a seven-year period, forced to live in a dog box for a year, and given a pail to use as a restroom. The pair has been prosecuted.
The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police stated Wednesday that Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, of Gloucester Township, were charged with kidnapping, while Mosley was also charged with additional charges of sexual assault.
According to a news release from police and prosecutors, the 18-year-old woman, who authorities identified as Mosley’s stepdaughter and Spencer’s daughter, had fled the house on May 8 with the help of a neighbor. On Saturday, the abuse was then reported to the police.
According to the victim, she has been abused by Spencer and Mosley since 2018.
She was taken out of school around that time when she was in the sixth grade “at Spencer’s discretion and confined to her home,” according to officials.
According to the announcement, the girl said that she was “forced to live in a dog crate for approximately one year and was let out periodically” soon after being yanked out of school.
She was later chained up and had to dwell in a padlocked bathroom.
When relatives came to the house, she assured the police that she would be allowed to leave the restroom. At other times, she shared a room with nothing but a bucket for a toilet.
The woman said authorities that if she attempted to leave, the alarm system in the room would “alert Spencer and Mosley.”
According to police, the victim also claimed that Mosley had sexually assaulted her and hit her with a belt.
David Harkins, the chief of police for Gloucester Township, told reporters on Wednesday that it was “one of the most despicable cases we’ve run across.”
According to him, on May 8, police arrived to Wawa, spoke with the teenager, and obtained a statement from her. Harkins claimed that although she labeled the case as one of domestic violence, she failed to reveal the entire extent of the assault.
Domestic abuse assistance were given to her, but she turned them down at the time. When the whole situation was revealed on Saturday night, police were called once more.
After searching the house, detectives discovered that the victim lived in “squalid conditions” with a huge number of Great Dane dogs, chinchillas, and other animals.
According to the release, both girls were allegedly homeschooled, and a 13-year-old child who also resided in the house was taken out of school years earlier at Spencer’s whim.
The specifics of the girl’s escape and incarceration were not revealed by Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay.
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“Anyone who’s been confined for a period of seven years, held in these conditions, living in squalid filth, is going to be damaged, psychologically, physically, emotionally, mentally, and as you also can appreciate, when it comes to cases involving child endangerment and child abuse and sexual assault, confidentiality to protect the victims is paramount. So we’re limited in all the details,” she stated.
According to Harkins, authorities had received some animal complaints in the past but had no evidence of child abuse occurring at the residence.
Mosley was a train conductor for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), while Spencer was unemployed. As a train engineer, he was one of the staff members recognized by SEPTA in March.
Both Spencer and Mosley faced charges on Sunday, including conspiracy to commit kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child through abuse or neglect, criminal restraint, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
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Mosley was also charged with one crime of endangering the welfare of a child by sexual contact, two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault.
After being taken into custody at their residence on Sunday, they were placed under remand to the Camden County Correctional Facility until Friday’s detention hearings. The couple’s public defender declined to comment on the case.
