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Starving Girl Found In Salinas Home Was Shackled By The Neck, Officials Say
More grisly details are emerging in the story of three starving children who were found in a Monterey County home this month.
Two women were arrested after a girl, 8, and two boys, 3 and 5, were found March 14 in the women's Salinas home starving and in deplorable conditions, The Associated Press reports. Authorities found the children after a welfare check at the house and saw chains hanging from the walls in the home that they believe were used to restrain the children, and they believe the girl was at times shackled by the ankle and the neck to prevent her from getting food.
The girl was the most abused of the three and looked like “a concentration camp” victim, according to Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller. She was hospitalized for five days, The Monterey Herald reports.
Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, were arrested and charged with felony child cruelty, false imprisonment and other charges. The girl and 5-year-old boy were legally adopted children by the couple, who were domestic partners and scheduled to be married this month, while the 3-year-old boy was the biological child of one of the women.
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All three children were taken into protective custody and placed in foster homes.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, Craig was formerly a correctional officer in New Mexico, and Deanda was previously a businesswoman and counselor, the Herald reports. They are being held at Monterey County Jail on a $50,000 bail each, and they’re both scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 28.
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