An Arizona couple kept their four adoptive children locked up for hours without food, water, light — or even the use of a bathroom, according to a report.
Benito Gutierrez, 69, and Carol Gutierrez, 64, of Tucson were charged with three counts of child abuse after authorities found their kids – aged 6 to 12 – living in squalor and deprivation, police said.
“The children were kept in separate bedrooms, which were locked from the outside,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
“(They had) no access to food, water, lights or bathroom facilities for up to 12 hours at a time on a regular basis,” Tucson News Now reported, citing the police statement.
One of the rooms contained a bucket that was used as a toilet, police added.
Police discovered the wretched scene on Saturday after one of the kids managed to escape the house of horrors through a bedroom window, went to a Family Dollar store and asked to use a phone.
The store clerk called 911 because of the child’s age and condition, according to police.
The parents from hell were arrested Tuesday and their children have been removed from the home on North Flowing Wells Road, police said.
It was unclear if the children are related to each other and how long they had been under the care of the abusive couple.
The case bore a disturbing resemblance to the arrest last month of a California couple, David and Louise Turpin of Perris, who are accused of shackling 13 adopted children to their beds.
One of the children, aged 2 to 29, escaped and alerted police about her starving siblings, who were allowed to shower just once a year.
