A 43-year-old man was arrested for allegedly holding his two children and their mother hostage in his Spotsylvania, Virginia, home for two years.
The man, identified by authorities as Kariem Ali Muhammad Moore, is facing three felony counts of abduction along with felony assault and battery.
The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office told local media that an officer went to the house Saturday, July 29, to do a welfare check after a relative reported not seeing the mother for a long time.
Moore, who opened the door, was reluctant to engage with the officer, local media report.
The woman, 32, and two children came out of a side door and spoke to the deputies, saying that they had not been allowed to leave the house for two years.
The children, aged 8 and 11, had never been to school, the sheriff’s office believes, and the mother had serious health problems that had not been treated for two years.
She was hospitalized for her untreated health problems and the two children were also taken in for medical evaluations but were released to family members the same day.
An official with the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office said Moore was unemployed and hardly ever left the home, NBC 12 reported.
It’s not clear yet how the three were held hostage.
Moore is being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail about 20 miles north of Spotsylvania.
