Police say a 15-year-old girl held in the killing of her 16-year-old brother has accused her family of years of physical and sexual abuse.
Police documents released Wednesday said the girl’s uncle was convicted of molesting her in 2010. They also say the children’s mother discovered the siblings having sex.
Law enforcement officials said they discovered the teen’s body late Monday night at the family home in rural White Springs in north Florida.
After the shooting, the girl told investigators that her parents routinely kept her locked in a room with only a blanket and a bucket to urinate in.
The shooting happened Sunday. Police say the father is a truck driver and his wife goes on trips with him, leaving their children at home. While they were away, the girl broke into her parents’ bedroom and got a handgun while her 11-year-old sister kept watch, police said.
The girls are in juvenile detention. The parents were charged with child neglect and are accused of failing to supervise in the treatment of children, Smith said.
A younger sibling, age 3, also was in the home at the time and is now in state custody. The agency is working with deputies to determine what happened and to help the surviving siblings, Department of Children and Families spokesman John Harrell told the newspaper. He said state law prohibited him from releasing details of any past incidents the family might have had with the department.
Third Circuit State Attorney Jeff Siegmeister told the newspaper that he hasn’t decided whether to charge the girls as adults. Because of the suspects’ ages, The Associated Press is not naming the girls, their brother or the parents.
Children arrested for crimes and treated as juveniles can be held in detention for a maximum of 30 days.
“Sometimes we can send them home after that, but in light of all of the facts in this case, we don’t have any place to send the children,” Siegmeister told The Sun. “I may be forced to actually charge them as adults to hold them in juvenile detention until I can work something out. I don’t know all of the facts yet.”
Associated Press
