Police in Arizona made a shocking discovery in a closet in the apartment of a Hispanic couple when a three-year-old girl was found malnourished, bound in duct tape, and stuffed into a cloth bag.
Police also found she had been serially raped and then prostituted out by the man living with her mother.
The child was found after a tipster called police and reported he had been offered the girl for sale as a sexual plaything by the man who the child’s mother allowed to move into her home.
After a raid, police arrested 30-year-old Francisco Rios-Covarrubias on multiple of charges, including sex trafficking, sexual conduct with a minor, and felony child abuse.
The girl’s mother, Mayra Solis, 22, was similarly arrested for child abuse. She was also arrested for fraud because she had shaved her daughter’s head in an attempt to fool people into giving her money under the ruse that the child had cancer, a ruse she admitted to perpetrating under police questioning.
Police found the girl in the closet, with only her shaved head sticking out of a black cloth bag. She had been duct taped in a seated position with her arms and legs firmly bound so she couldn’t move. She was also covered in feces because she could not get to a bathroom from her closet prison. Police said that, once freed from her bindings, she was so weak she couldn’t stand up.
“The level of neglect was so harsh that the girl could not stand on her own,” Mesa Police Chief John Meza said
Medical exams showed she had been sexually abused and suffered from malnutrition and numerous rashes, especially around her genitals. She also had multiple abrasions, cuts, and bruises all over her emaciated body.
Officials claim the girl was thrown in the closet and left there for hours–and even days–on end as the two adults went to work or when they were having sex with paying visitors.
“What happened to this child is horrific,” child services spokesman Doug Nick said. “As with any child who is the victim of abuse and neglect, safety is the priority.”
“This is an incident that shocks the soul,” Chief Meza added. “We want to make sure that all individuals who commit these monstrous crimes will be arrested… the innocence of a child will not be ignored.”
The child is now with the Arizona Department of Child Safety, and police said her condition was improving.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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