10 children, for the past three years, have been held in a storm bunker in Alabama and sexually tortured in a sex trafficking ring, with some children as young as two, according to police. Some of those who set up the ring are reportedly parents to some of the children held captive.
There have been seven suspects who have been arrested in connection with the horrific crimes, according to the New York Post. The children have been subject to sexual abuse where their captors have used objects such as animal shock collars in the abuse, the Bibb County Sheriff's Department has said. “I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there is a limit, we’ve reached it,” Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said on Wednesday.
The victims are all between 2 and 15 years of age. The victims are in custody of the Alabama Department of Human Resources and are being given access to counselors.
Suspects Rebecca Brewer, 29; Sara Louise Terrell, 41; Ricky Terrell, 44; Dalton Terrell, 21; William Chase McElroy, also 21; Andres Velazquez-Trejo, 29; and Timothy St. John, 23, all face a slew of charges ranging from human trafficking to rape of children and sexual torture.
Those arrested so far have each played a role in the sex trafficking ring, according to police. Velazquez-Trejo would allegedly drug the victims, putting a powder in their drinks before clients came, paying $1,000 to rape the children. Often, the children were tied up during the abuse.
Two victims said they were forced by the suspects to perform sex acts on each other, authorities said, and the bunker belonged to or was near the home owned by McElroy’s grandparent, said Bibb County Assistant District Attorney Bryan Jones.
Jones said that McElroy had taught some of the victims how to perform the sex acts by performing them on the victims himself. Sara Louise Terrell also placed shock collars on the children, according to court documents. The suspects would use the collars as a form of punishment as well as sexual gratification by using the collars on the children's genitals. The victims included the children of Terrell, Velazquez-Trejo, and Brewer.
Velazquez-Trejo and Brewer have three children together, and Brewer also has a fourth child with a different individual. It is not clear if all four children were among those victimized. It is also unclear how many of the children from Terrell were involved, as well as who fathered the kids.
All three Terrells have been charged with being connected to the crimes, but their relationship is not clear. Wade said "there's no telling" how many victims there have been in the case and that the investigation into the sex trafficking ring is ongoing with the Department of Homeland Security.
Part of the probe will be to investigate potential connections to the Seranos gang in Mexico. The gang makes much of its profits from child sex trafficking.
“No child deserves this, the power and control of it, the stealing the innocence of a child and the horrible victimization they went through with these monsters,” Wade added. “Some of the older children will carry this vividly for the rest of their lives. You can’t heal from this, but you can move on as best you can.”
