Christabel Duah
Four people are facing criminal charges for brutal attacks on a 16-year-old girl in what police are calling a “torture chamber.”
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Auburn police say that the teenage girl was held in a Massachusetts basement for days where she was drugged, sexually assaulted and abused by a brother and sister duo and a pair of friends.
Investigators testified in court that the victim, who had run away from New Jersey, had been drugged with marijuana laced with Xanax and sexually assaulted several times between Christmas Day and Dec. 27. Police reportedly found her head shaved with her hair in a Christmas bag along with marks from lit cigarettes and a machete, according to The Daily Mail.
Krystal Lugo, 23, Christopher Lugo, 19, Krystal’s boyfriend Yariel Torres-Abee, 22, and Yuleny Ortiz, 19, are facing a multitude of felony charges.
Judge weighs dangerousness of 4 accused in Auburn kidnapping, torture https://t.co/fIhkrosjxA @georgebarnestg @AuburnMAPolice pic.twitter.com/fbzlT1yJZK
— telegramdotcom (@telegramdotcom) January 3, 2018
Authorities said that the victim was picked up by Krystal Lugo and Torres-Abee and taken to the siblings’ home, although it is unknown how they knew each other. The teenager was reportedly targeted by the suspects because they believed she had set them up to be robbed by two gunmen who stormed the home.
“The victim was picked up by all of the defendants and put into the chair,” she said. “A machete was held at the victim’s neck at the direction of Krystal,” said District Attorney Tara Nechev during the hearing to determine “dangerousness.” Krystal reportedly threatened to kill her and her family should she speak to cops, reports the Boston Herald.
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The teen was rescued by police after two informants told alerted police to the home. Nechev noted in court that police officers had responded to calls to the home 144 times since 2003
The chilling details of the attacks were enough for prosecutors to hold Krystal Lugo — a mother of an 18-month-old daughter — without bail. She’s charged with kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and larceny, while her brother is facing charges of kidnapping, rape and drug to confine. Her boyfriend is charged with kidnapping and assault and battery and Ortiz with kidnapping, reports the Herald.
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