A mentally-disabled woman and her five-year-old daughter were held in ‘modern-day slavery’ for two years by three people in northeast Ohio who abused them and kept them in line with venomous snakes and pit bulls, it was revealed today.
Federal prosecutors say 26-year-old Jordie Callahan and 31-year-old Jessica Hunt utterly manipulated Shannon Eckley – even forcing her to beat her own daughter so they could record it on video. They allegedly told her that if she ever fled her bondage, they would use the footage to ensure her child was taken away from her.
Between May 2011 and October 2012, Eckley and her daughter were locked in the basement of an apartment in Ashland, Ohio, and forced to do housework and look after Hunt’s four children. All the while, Callahan and Hunt stole her government benefits and used the money on themselves, authorities say.
Eckley’s enslavement bears chilling similarity to the case of Ariel Castro – the man who was charged last month with kidnapping three woman and keeping them against their will in his house for ten years while he repeatedly raped, beat and emotionally tortured them.
Castro’s house of horrors is located in Cleveland, Ohio, 65miles northeast of Ashland.
Charges filed against Callahan and Hunt reveal that they treated her worse than the numerous dogs and reptiles they kept as pets – even feeding the animals in front of her while depriving her of food and water.
‘We are yet again reminded that modern-day slavery exists all around us,’ U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven M. Dettelbach said.
Authorities say the pair, along with Daniel J. Brown, 33, took controlled every aspect of life for Eckley, who is said to have the mental capacity of a 13-year-old girl after she sustained a head injury years ago.
Perhaps the most disturbing allegation against the three is that they forced Eckley to beat her own child – who was just a toddler at the time.
Eckley told investigators that Callahan and Hunt demanded that she hit her daughter and told her that if she did not, they would beat the child even more viciously.
They then recorded a video of the abuse on a cell phone. They told her if she ever ‘messed up’ or went to police, they would show it to authorities and Eckley’s daughter would be taken away from her, according to prosecutors
Callahan and Hunt invited Eckley and her daughter to come live with them in May 2011. It is unknown how she knew the couple.
Authorities allege she arrived in a living hell. Once she moved in, the pair began treating her as a slave.
They initially locked her in the basement and forced her to sleep on the concrete floor without a mattress.
They deprived her of food – while lavishing attention on their animals.
Eckley was only allowed to eat the leftovers after Callahan, Hunt and Hunt’s four children had already eaten.
Once, Eckley said, she and her young daughter had not eaten all day. Instead of giving the leftovers from dinner to her, Callahan gave the food to his dogs and made Eckley watch.
Eckley was not allowed to feed her child fruit or vegetables, but she alleges that she was made to give fresh fruit to an iguana that roamed freely in her bedroom.
In October 2012, on one of her trips to the store, Eckley was arrested for shoplifting after stealing a candy bar.
She told police that she wanted to go jail because the people she lived with ‘were mean to her.’
The officer then questioned Callahan and Hunt, who showed him the video of Eckley beating her child.
Eckley was arrested and charged, but further investigation revealed the the deplorable conditions she was living under, authorities say.
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