Authorities in Minnesota have filed assault, abuse and child endangerment charges against a 51-year-old man accused of chaining up and beating developmentally disabled twin sisters who lived in the same house for several years, PEOPLE confirms.
Arrest affidavits obtained by PEOPLE allege that one of the twins was repeatedly raped by the man, identified as Jerry Lee Curry. DNA testing shows he allegedly fathered her two children, police say.
The twin escaped last May from the Minneapolis home where the abuse allegedly unfolded. She was 20 at the time and is now 21.
Investigators got involved the next day, when the twin, who had not been reported missing, showed up at a homeless shelter with scars and one of her ears partially detached.
Police spoke to the woman, who allegedly told them she was afraid to return to the home.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Detectives allegedly learned that Curry regularly chained the twins by the ankles and wrists, which were swollen, scarred and bleeding on the twin who escaped, the affidavit alleges.
Investigators further accuse Curry of beating the girls about the arms, legs and head with baseball bats and wooden paddles, the affidavit alleges.
In a statement to the media, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman called the allegations “as repulsive and horrendous as anything I have seen in my 18 years as county attorney.”
Curry has not entered a plea to the criminal sexual conduct, assault, stalking, abuse of a vulnerable adult and child endangerment charges he’s facing and had no lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
He remains in custody on $750,000 bail.
At a press conference Thursday, Freeman described the twins as “vulnerable adults” with “some limited capacity to communicate,” which prolonged the course of the investigation.
“This is a very complex and complicated case,” Freeman said. “Frankly, we’re all shocked at what we learned.”
According to the affidavit, doctors treating the twins discovered numerous scars on their backs, faces and scalps. One of them told police Curry allegedly stomped on her head, rendering her blind in her left eye.
The twins initially denied they were abused by Curry, but weeks later, started to open up about what they had been through.
• For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.
Freeman characterized the home as a “House of Horrors,” noting that when officers first entered, it allegedly looked more like a “sex chamber,” with several sex toys found in one room and pornography playing on the TV.
Two dogs were also allegedly found in the basement, which was covered with feces and urine, according to the affidavit.
The Star Tribune reports that, from 2011 until mid-2017, police responded to 53 calls for service to the home. Child protection workers investigated the home on numerous occasions and the twins received medical treatment for their wounds at times, according to the paper.