Brazilian police rescued a woman and her two children, who had been kidnapped by the father of the family for 17 yearsa period in which they were imprisoned at home, the authorities reported this Friday.
The woman and her two sons, ages 17 and 22they were tied up, dirty and malnourished in a room in unsanitary conditions in Guaratiba, a neighborhood located in the west of Rio de Janeiro, the Military Police explained in a statement, which managed to free them after receiving an anonymous complaint.
The authorities also they arrested the kidnapperidentified as Luiz Antonio Santos Silva, father of the two young men, who had the appearance of children due to obvious signs of malnutrition, according to Military Police Captain William Oliveira, who participated in the rescue operation.
“DID NOT SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY 17 YEARS AGO”
The kidnapper kept the victims imprisoned in a room of bare cement, no drinking water, full of moisture, with feces and no air circulationsince the windows and doors were boarded up.
Once rescued, the woman told the authorities that “haven’t seen the light of day for 17 years, it was the first time in all that time, and he said that he felt pain from the sunlight. We offered her water, I asked her if she had eaten anything and if she wanted to eat, she said no. She said ‘no, or no, I can’t eat, he won’t let us eat without his permission“, says Oliveira.
“I explained to her that she and the children were free now and that the man had been arrested, but she still insisted and did not eat anything,” he added. The young people, for their part, did not speak, they were anxious and babbled.