A secluded cottage with crumbling walls and dirty bedding. It's a terrible condition when a mother and her two children are desperately trying to survive in Brazil's second-largest city.
Brazilian police said a man had imprisoned his wife and two children for 17 years and had now rescued three victims. They have been tied up, starved, severely dehydrated and malnourished.
Pictures provided by police showed one of the victims being tied up
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) local time reported on July 30, this appalling incident occurred in the Guaratiba community in western Rio de Janeiro. It is notorious for its extreme poverty.
Police revealed that the suspect, named Luiz Antonio Santos Silva, had been married to his wife for 23 years.
Suspect Silva
After receiving a report from an anonymous person, the police launched a rescue operation on July 28. The house where the victim is held is like a "private prison". Photos released by police showed the interior of the house dirty and foul-smelling with insufficient light.
After being rescued, the wife told the authorities that they sometimes went up to three days without food and were often physically and psychologically abused. She was held for at least 17 years and was never allowed to go out and work. Her husband had warned her, "You can only leave this home if you die." She tried to escape from her husband's clutches, but Silva put down her harsh words: "If you run any further, you will be killed." ”
The interior of the house is dirty and foul smelly and there is not enough light
According to local media reports, the two children, a man and a woman, aged 19 and 22 respectively, have never been to school. When the police found them, they were still tied up, disheveled, and almost starved to death. Gendarmerie Captain William Oliveira said he initially thought the two were children around 10 years old, not as adults because they looked extremely ill-nourished.
"When we looked at the situation of these two children, we thought they wouldn't live another week." A local resident said he gave the girl a little fruit on the day of the rescue. "She took the banana, even ate the skin, she was so hungry."
One child was tied up
The rescued mother hugs her daughter
Due to severe dehydration and malnutrition, the three victims were taken to hospital for treatment immediately after being rescued.
Neighbors said Silva often behaves bizarrely, such as playing music loudly in the house and nicknamed him DJ.
"We often pass by and have very high music all the time. He had a lot of sound equipment at home, and we suspected he was trying to cover something up. One neighbor believed he did this to cover up the cries of his family.
The crime occurred in a remote cottage
An investigation into Silva's alleged crimes is ongoing and he could be charged with kidnapping or unlawful imprisonment, ill-treatment and torture. According to reports, after news that the family's condition was first reported in 2020, Brazil's Interior Ministry has begun investigating why the family was not rescued earlier.
Neighbors told the media that they had previously filed a complaint with the community's health department, but no one heeded it. A local family clinic said it reported abuse to the child justice protection agency in 2020.
The local child justice protection agency said it had reported the case to Brazil's prosecutor's office and police in the past two years, but nothing had been achieved. The prosecutor's office did not provide an explanation for the matter.
Nandu reporter Shi Minglei