Update: Maryland Women Charged With Abusing Children in New ‘House of Horrors’

The Mardela Springs home on the 11000 block of Norris Twilley Road in Maryland where three children were allegedly abused beginning in the spring or early summer of 2017. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

In a shocking case of abuse, officials said that three children were beaten and locked in the closets of a Maryland home for months.

The children—ages 8, 9, and 10—were also assaulted with stun gun and they were beaten by two women using belts as well as extension cords, Maryland State Police said, WMDT reported. In one instance, one of the children was allegedly forced to eat dog excrement.

Amanda Wright, 29, and Besline Joseph, 25, were arrested Wednesday, Jan. 31, in Mardela Springs, Maryland. They were charged with several counts of child abuse. According to Delmarva Now, Wright is the mother of the children.

The women mostly kept the kids in closets or in the basement of the home, and they threatened them with death if they told anyone about the abuse.

Police began an investigation into the case after a relative reported the child abuse. Delmarva Now reported that police and a social worker interviewed the children on Jan. 30, and the two women were arrested the following day.

The 10-year-old child “was tased on numerous occasions by Amanda [Wright] and Besline [Joseph] for not matching up laundry correctly, forgetting to feed the dog and eating food that Amanda and Besline do not want him to have,” said police in charging documents.

When officers found them, the children had signs of abuse, such as bloody noses, cuts, and bruises. They were fed a diet of bread, oatmeal, and water, officials said.

“It is hard to imagine this type of abuse, and certainly even harder to imagine the motive behind it,” Greg Shipley, the state’s police director of communications, told WMDT.

“It’s a tragic situation that these children had to endure during that period of time.”

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