Three abused young children were rescued from their parent's "cluttered and dirty" home in central California, the local sheriff's office said on Friday.
Saved by police, the two boys, aged 3 and 5, and an 8-year-old girl had bruises and signs of malnourishment. It is alleged that one of the children was also regularly chained onto a wall, Reuters reported.
The children were discovered when officers went to check on their homes after receiving concerned calls of two of the children having missed their medical appointments.
The officers found the children at their home in Salinas, 100 miles south of San Francisco, Reuters reported.
After having a chat with the children's two mothers, the kids were found with "obvious bruising and discoloration consistent with malnourishment, and signs of mistreatment," said John Thornburg, a Monterey County sheriff's office spokesman.
"At times the parents had chained the 8-year-old to the wall while she was in the house," he said in a telephone interview, describing an attachment on the wall to which she would be bound to prevent her from getting food, according to Reuters.
Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller described her as "looking like a concentration camp victim," Digital Journal reported.
"This was a particular heinous case. The children had hardly eaten for months," Miller said.
31-year-old Erica Dawn Craig and 44-year-old Jessica Deanda were arrested the next day. Police charged them with counts of child abuse, neglect and false imprisonment.
The house was informed to have "very little food," which was described as "cluttered and dirty," a police report said.
After the arrests, the children were taken into protective custody and the girl was placed in a hospital for four days in order to get treated.
"The police report described both mothers as unemployed. They remain in custody in the county jail, Thornburg said," Reuters reported. "Their lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday."
