Twins ‘handcuffed and forced to eat faeces’ by mum flee naked in dead of night
A pair of twins made a break for it after their mother allegedly held them captive, handcuffed them and forced them to drink bleach.
The severely malnourished 16-year-old boy and girl managed to escape from their home in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday (October 18) when the boy hid a key in his mouth.
They waited until their mum, Zaikiya Duncan, 40, and her boyfriend Jova Terrell, 26, had gone to bed before attempting their escape.
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The pair were helped to safety by a neighbour, who told Good Morning America: "Their hands were so swollen, their poor hands were bigger than the rest of their bodies."
The twins have since accused Duncan of starving and handcuffing them and their five siblings as well as not allowing them to wear clothes, forcing them to drink bleach, and making them eat their own faeces.
The pair also say they were whipped with electrical cords and beat the children with curtain rails and metal rods, and claim their mum made them take up to two dozen Benadryl in order to get to sleep.
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The children were kept in a laundry room and allegedly only fed one to three times a week and were only given sandwiches containing mustard, relish or bologna sausage to survive.
Terrell allegedly beat the 16-year-old boy regularly.
Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the county constable's office, also stated the kids weren't allowed to leave the laundry room and "were naked most of the time".
Duncan and Terrell have since been taken into custody after the escaped twins told their neighbours what was happening and begged for help.
The couple have both been charged with aggravated assault of a family member and await trial, McShan told MailOnline.
The Texas Department of Family Protective Services is also investigating the case.
Duncan is known to be the mother of seven children: the 16-year-old twins, Nicholas Menina, seven, Zayden Menina, 10, twins Javion and Javier Menina, 12, and Jarod Menina, 14.
All of the children remain in hospital and are set to enter the foster care system once their bodies have recovered from the campaign of abuse.
It is believed the family had only moved to Texas this summer, and it is not known why they made the move.
It is also unclear how long Terrell and Duncan had been together when the teenagers reported their abuse.
This is not the first time Duncan has been accused of child cruelty, either.
The mum-of-seven was accused of child abuse 10 years ago in Louisiana when a then five-year-old child of hers was rushed from their school to a nearby hospital to be treated for burns on his feet and genitals as well as other parts of his body.
The boy was also found to have bruises on his torso, back, hip and buttocks.
Police went to Duncan's home and found a 20-month-old child wrapped in clothing with his hands bound.
Duncan reportedly admitted to disciplining one child by making him hold a push-up position for up to an hour which caused their hands to swell.
The same child was forced to sleep on the floor of a closet in the home with the door blocked by boards to prevent the tot from "escaping".
At the time, two of Duncan's other children also showed signs of abuse and were removed from the home.
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During that investigation, Duncan confessed she had been investigated for child abuse before.
The children were eventually returned to her care despite a charge of cruelty to juveniles.
Disturbingly, the mum had regularly posted pictures and clips of her and her kids on social media, sometimes showing the family dancing together, until the summer of 2021.
Captioning one Instagram post showing four of her six sons sitting around a table, she wrote: "I love spending time with my boys."
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