3 Charged in Ohio For Enslaving Mother and Daughter

Three suspects have been indicted for keeping a mentally disabled woman and her daughter in their Ohio apartment for two years, demanding physical labor, threatening with menacing animals to keep them in line and physically assaulting the mother and her kin.

26-year-old Jordie Callahan, 31-year-old Jessica Hunt and 33-year-old Daniel Brown now face charges of forced labor; Callahan also might be up against an additional count of witness tampering, the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland told CNN.

The apartment where the mother and her daughter were forcibly held house "numerous" pit bulls and reptiles such as pythons and venomous coral snakes that the three used to keep the two slaves compliant.

The mother, who has only been identified as "S.E." exposed her situation when she was arrested for stealing a candy bar and requested the police take her to jail. Then, she revealed the strange story.

The home is located in Ashland, around 60 miles south of Cleveland. The mother and daughter-along with a third unidentified woman-were rescued in May from the home, where they had been held for almost two years.

"The officers that took that complaint detected that there was other issues aside from the shoplifting," Marcelli told CNN.

Apparently, the relationships went deeper as evidence surfaced.

Callahan showed authorities a video on her cell phone of S.E. physically assaulting her child. S.E. told the police that Callahan and Hunt forced her to beat her daughter, as Callahan threatened to expose the video to the authorities if she "messed up" or told anyone what was going on in the house.

But it seemed to police and FBI that Callahan and company were, indeed, to blame for forcing the S.E. and her daughter to work for them, in addition to playing mental games and using the animals as threatening tools.

"Callahan and Hunt recruited S.E. and her child to live with them in their two-bedroom apartment in Ashland," prosecutors said. "Callahan and Hunt forced S.E. to clean the house, do laundry, walk to the store to do their shopping and care for their numerous pit bulls and reptiles."