A horrifying case has emerged from Austin, Texas, where a woman was allegedly tortured, starved, and chained in a backyard for months by a group of people she once called friends.
Police said they discovered the woman, half-naked and shackled to metal exercise equipment, after receiving a 911 call on October 30 about screams coming from a home on the city’s south side. When officers arrived, they found the victim with severe injuries, naked from the waist down, and chained to a punching bag stand.
“The woman showed signs of physical distress and had visible injuries consistent with prolonged restraint,” police said.
The five adults inside the home allegedly tried to escape but were quickly apprehended. Two small children found at the property were placed under the care of Child Protective Services.
According to the victim, she had once been friends with a woman living in the house but said the group “decided they no longer liked her” and decided to keep her as a captive. She claimed she was forced to live outdoors and was beaten whenever she tried to run away.
Investigators said the woman was given just one meal a day and kept shackled to a metal frame, often with her wrists locked behind her. She appeared severely malnourished and covered in scars from repeated abuse.
The night before she was rescued, the woman told police her pants had slipped down and she was “punished” — shot with a BB gun and left handcuffed outside overnight in freezing temperatures.
Doctors who treated her said she suffered multiple open wounds, severe swelling, tissue loss in her hands and feet, deep scarring from BB pellets, and facial injuries. A scan revealed a BB lodged in her right eye.
One of the children in the home told authorities that his father shot the woman when she was “bad,” while his mother watched.
All five suspects were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, and injury to a disabled person. They remain in custody at the Travis County Jail on $305,000 bond each.
