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A man and his girlfriend were charged with torture and false imprisonment after his 54-year-old sister was found wounded and locked in a tool shed in Lancaster.
Elias Abdurahman, 61, and girlfriend Sara Kebede Tadesse, 50, each face one count each of false imprisonment by violence, torture, assault with a deadly weapon—a cane—and dependent adult abuse, according to a release from the L.A. County District Attorney's Office.
The prosecutor on the case said L.A. County Sheriff's deputies discovered the victim locked in a storage shed in the backyard of a home in the 45,000 block of East 2nd Street on September 22. They were responding to reports of screaming sounds coming from the property. When they found the woman, she was "frail, malnourished and had fresh and old wounds," according to the prosecutor.
Abdurahman and Tadesse are scheduled to be arraigned in the Antelope Valley Branch of L.A. Superior Court today, and could each face the maximum sentence of life in state prison. Prosecutors are recommending the bail be set at more than $1.1 million.