US police are searching for a woman who allegedly kept two British girls as slaves for 13 years.
Mercedes Farquharson, 60, made Jasmine and Holly Lloyd work 20 hours a day at her North Carolina home until they were freed in December, police said.
She is wanted on three counts of involuntary servitude, police in Monroe, North Carolina, say.
She had taken over care of the girls in Southall, west London, in the 1990s, taking them to Spain and then the US.
Jasmine and Holly, now 22 and 18 respectively, said they were not allowed to go to school or have any friends and had to look after a menagerie that included more than a dozen dogs and around 300 chickens.
Farquharson, who took in the girls when their mother was having marriage problems, is now on the run. Investigators believe she may have fled to Spain.
She is also wanted on two counts of felony child abuse over the suspected beating of her adopted daughter.
The Lloyd sisters and Farquharson\'s 15-year-old adopted daughter were taken from the home in Monroe, North Carolina, by police after a neighbour reported suspicious circumstances.
Detective John Young, of Union County Sheriff\'s Office, said: "The house was nasty. It was like the inside of a barn.
"This woman was working these girls basically 20 hours a day and wouldn\'t give them proper nourishment or any kind of schooling."
\'Regular beatings\'
Holly told local TV channel WCNC the experience was "very draining". She said Farquharson would beat the three girls, using "canes, bamboo sticks and dog leashes".
She said all the girls would get into trouble for something each day and at least two would be beaten.
"We had to clean until we could eat off the floor or until you could see your face in the counter but it was gruelling," she said.
The Lloyd sisters said they were put to work aged 12 and seven. After moving from the UK, they lived with Farquharson in Spain for around six years before moving to Monroe some five years ago.
When social services workers made a scheduled visit in 2003, the girls said they were ordered to clean the home and tell officials they loved Farquharson.
But late last year investigators returned and took the 15-year-old into care.
The Lloyd sisters are now being cared for at the home of a social services employee\'s family.
Jasmine Lloyd also spoke to the WCNC channel about her former life.
"When I was there, I never thought it was weird or bizarre," she said.
"Now that I\'m out I realise she\'s the weird one, not the rest of the world."
source:jawdrop: :wah:
She should get a life of hard labor with no parol.
She should have to bust 10,000 1-ton slabs of granite with a teaspoon and one of those little hammers the doctor uses to test your reflexes. When she finishes then she can go. Also those rocks better be clean enough to see your self in, she can have a damp cloth to polish them.
^^^ she better be using spit and sweat... no water
You all are making it sound like she did something wrong.
In high school, I was a good friend of a guy who, while living with his drugged-up mom and stepdad in North Carolina, was chained up in the backyard after school and forced to dig holes (for no practical purpose) around the yard.
good friends? Yet another page turns in the cryptic story that is Zurflu.
good friends? Yet another page turns in the cryptic story that is Zurflu.
Good friends in class and skatepals after school at the skatepark.
Crazy Pete was chained up in middle school, while living in N.C. Worst part about it was that he was probably one of the most intelligent kids in my class, and he didn\'t even graduate.
He\'s currently a successful dj (Pedro Fiesta) in NYC with a heroin addiction.
Crazy Pete was chained up in middle school, while living in N.C. Worst part about it was that he was probably one of the most intelligent kids in my class, and he didn\'t even graduate.
He\'s currently a successful dj (Pedro Fiesta) in NYC with a heroin addiction.
well, it looks like everything his parents hoped for has come true. :sigh: