The 18-year-old says she was yanked from school in the sixth grade and locked up in various ways over the years — before police searched her home and found her 13-year-old sister, who had also been removed from school, calling it “one of the most despicable cases.”
A couple in Gloucester Township, New Jersey have been arrested and charged after a teen girl allegedly escaped the home after six years of confinement, abuse, and sexual assault.
The victim’s mother, Brenda Spencer, 38, and her stepfather, Branndon Mosley, 41, with both arrested and charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of a child after the teen told her story. They have entered not guilty pleas, according to NJ.com.
Prosecutors have described the living conditions the teen was allegedly forced to endure after she was removed from school by her mother and confined inside the home as a “house of horrors,” per the outlet. The teen, now 18, also alleged that she was sexually abused by Mosley.
At their arraignment Monday, prosecutors said they believe the father should spend 50 years in prison and that they are seeking 25 years for the mother, based on initial plea deals offered to the couple. If convicted, Mosley could face life in prison, while Spencer faces up to 30 years.
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In response, Spencer and Mosley pleaded not guilty to the charges, with their attorney Terrell Ratliff saying it’s too early to talk pleas. “I forgot it three seconds after I got told it,” he said, per the outlet. “We’re not even there at this point in time.”
Spencer and Mosley were arrested and charged in May, just days after the girl made her alleged escape. They were both charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Spencer faces additional charges of third-degree counts of criminal restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as well as weapons offenses. Mosley was hit with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree counts of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
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Inside ‘House of Horrors’
On Thursday, May 8, police were contacted by a neighbor after the teen had made her alleged escape from the house she said she’d been trapped in for the past six years. According to officials, Spencer pulled her daughter out of school after the sixth grade, removing her from the “social safety network,” as NJ.com described it. She was rarely seen after that.
According to officials at a press conference on Wednesday, September 14, the teen initially did not disclose the full extent of her alleged abuses, only asking for homeless services. Eventually, though, she opened up, according to Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins.
According to the young woman, she’d been held captive and sexually abused since she was 13 years old. She said that from the moment she was pulled from school in 2018, she’d been confined to her home, according to NJ.com at the time, with the parents employing different methods of confinement over the year.
The girl alleged that she spent about a year forced to live inside of a dog crate with her hands bound behind her back. Later she said she was chained to the toilet and forced to live in a bathroom.
After that, she said she was confined to a bare room with only a bucket in it for her to use as a toilet. That room, she told authorities, was set up with a baby monitor set up to alert Spencer and Mosley if she tried to leave. She further claimed she was forced to eat from a popcorn bucket, was not allowed to bathe regularly, and that Mosley would shave her head without her permission.
The girl explained that she was allowed to leave these situations on rare occasions when family visited.
During her alleged captivity, the young woman also said that she was physically beaten with a belt and sexually abused by Mosley, according to authorities. Charging documents seen by NJ.com detail one instance were Mosley allegedly offered her food in exchange for sex acts.
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Parents’ Response
Prosecutors said in their legal documents that Mosley admitted abusing the girl to investigators. He allegedly confessed to locking her in a dog crate and making her use a bucket as a toilet, as well as admitting he allegedly handcuffed her wrists and ankles. He explained, per prosecutors, that he “used to drink a lot.” As for the sexual assault allegations, he said he “couldn’t recall” that happened, but conceded “it was possible,” per authorities.
For Spencer’s part, Ratliff said that she flatly denies that any of the allegations are true and “denies any involvement in any of those behaviors.”
After her escape, authorities went to the home and discovered, as detailed in their reports, that she was living in “squalid conditions” along multiple dogs, chinchillas, and other animals. The only complaints ever filed by neighbors, per authorities, was for barking dogs.
Investigators reported also finding another girl in the house, the older teen’s 13-year-old sister, now 14. She told police that the younger girl had been taken out of school in the second grade, explaining that Spencer and Mosley allegedly decided to pull her out for fear she might tell someone her older sister was being forced to live in a dog crate, per the charging documents. Authorities said she was not abused like her older sister.
Authorities at the press conference stated that both girls attended Gloucester Township public schools, but that there are no state laws requiring any follow-ups on students who have been pulled for the purpose of home schooling. Officials said the district is cooperating in their ongoing investigation.
Speaking at the press conference, Harkins called it “one of the most despicable cases” he’d “ever run across” in his career.
The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline — 800.656.HOPE (4673) — provides free, 24/7 support for those in need.
If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
