A teacher administering an online test who heard an 11-year-old student say she was hungry and only allowed to eat a small plate of rice each day alerted investigators in Ohio that something was amiss. Authorities found the girl was severely malnourished, living in filth and had been isolated for years.
The girl weighed just 47 pounds (21.3 kilograms) when she was found in September — roughly 30 pounds under the average weight for a girl her age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Investigators said they believe she had been mostly isolated at home and mistreated for at least the past three years.
She was, at times, forced to sleep on a urine stained mattress, made to wear a diaper, and stay inside a locked trailer monitored by a security camera, said Brown County Prosecutor Zac Corbin.
“It’s just a wonder she got out of there when she did,” he said. “Where she was kept, it was not livable.”
The girl’s legal custodian, 47-year-old Margaret Breeze, of Georgetown, was charged two weeks ago with child endangering, kidnapping and felonious assault. She has since pleaded not guilty and remains in the county jail, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Cincinnati.
A message seeking comment was left with her attorney Thursday. Calls to her home were not answered.
The girl was homeschooled and taking the test from home so that she could remain being taught there, authorities said.
The teacher who alerted investigators noticed the girl was having trouble paying attention and asked her what was wrong, sheriff’s detective Quinn Carlson told The News Democrat of Georgetown, which first reported the arrest this week.
Officials with the county children services agency found the girl wearing a diaper, Carlson said.
The family denied abusing...
