Malnourished teens removed from home; Florida couple arrested

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (TCD) --

A Florida couple was arrested Monday, April 12, for allegedly abusing and starving three of the husband's children.

Oscar Torres, 40, and wife Brittany Kirschenhofer, 32, allegedly kept Torres’s 17-year-old child and 16-year-old twins locked in a room and fed them limited amounts of food, the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office alleges.

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Brian Hester said five children were living inside the home, and said the other two children had been treated "much, much differently," than the other three. Hester said detectives don’t believe the other two, ages 6 and 9, were abused.

"There was a chain lock on the door to the bedroom shared by the three victims," Hester said.

Hester said one of the teens weighed about 50 pounds and "was found hallucinating with loss of verbal communication, muscle control and other bodily functions."

One of the victims reportedly told detectives they had to "secretly scavenge for scraps of food," WPTV reports.

Hester said there was plenty of food in the home, and the home was not in deplorable condition, Treasure Coast News reports.

"Their hip bones were protruding from the pelvic area and bones along the spine were pushing through the skin of their back with the beginning stages of an open sore," Hester said. "Medical evaluations all confirmed this condition was a direct result of malnutrition and required a feeding tube to try and gradually bring the child back to the appropriate level of nutrition for their age."

Hester said Kirschenhofer is a stay-at-home mom and was responsible for the children in the household, TC News reports.

Hester called this case "some of the most appalling examples of child neglect that I have heard in my 26 years in law enforcement."

The Florida Department of Children and Families removed the children from the home on Feb. 22, according to WPTV-TV, after they received an anonymous complaint on Feb. 10.

The three teenagers are with their mother, who reportedly did not know about the alleged abuse. WPTV reports the two other kids, ages 6 and 9, are living with other relatives.

Oscar Torres and Brittany Kirschenhofer were both charged with three counts of aggravated child abuse, and were held in the St. Lucie County Jail on $90,000 bond each.

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