Four charged after runaway NJ teen girl rescued from Mass. ‘torture chamber’
A 16-year-old runaway girl from New Jersey was rescued by police in Auburn, Massachusetts, after she was found in the basement of a home that the cops described as a “torture chamber.” Police say the girl had been kidnapped and then held captive against her will in that basement where she was tortured, raped multiple times, burned with cigarettes, threatened with a machete held against her throat and had her head shaved. Fox News quoted police as saying in court on January 3 that when they found the girl two days after Christmas, she was in the basement of the Auburn home – and she was crying.
Auburn Police Officer George Vranos testified in a Worcester Central District Court hearing on Wednesday that when he discovered the crying teen in the basement, that she was wearing a knit cap. When he asked her to remove the cap he could see that her head had been shaved. Mass Live quoted Vranos as saying in court that when he found the girl, “she was looking at the floor whimpering.”
The girl’s hair was found in a Christmas bag nearby, according to The Boston Herald. Also found in the immediate vicinity where the teen was being held captive, police recovered “cigarettes, duct tape with hair, an iron and a pot of water.” Police said they were led to the Auburn home thanks to an anonymous tip about a girl being in trouble inside the home.
According to court testimony, the runaway teen was picked up on December 25 in the town of Leominster by Krystal Lugo and Ortiz and then transported to the house in Auburn. The Telegram reported that the girl told police that, “she was given a marijuana cigarette laced with Xanax and was then sexually assaulted several times by different people. Police said they found several used condoms in various areas of the house.”
The story gets more muddled and confusing when it was alleged that two individuals broke into that Auburn residence on December 27 in an apparent home invasion. The intruders fired gunshots into the ceiling, pistol whipped Christopher Lugo and demanded marijuana. After the intruders left, Lugo accused the teen girl of setting up that home invasion which prompted the four to hold the girl captive in the basement torture chamber.
“It was then that she was taken to the basement, where the victim was tied to a chair with duct tape. The assailants allegedly placed a machete at her throat while she was interrogated about the people involved in the home invasion.” ~ Fox News
Krystal Lugo, 23, is charged with kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and larceny under $250; Christopher Lugo, 19, is charged with kidnapping, rape and drugging to confine; Torres-Abee, 22, is charged with kidnapping and assault and battery; Yuleny Ortiz, 19, of Auburn, is charged with kidnapping.
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Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Cover photo image credit: @CTA513, Twitter
