Zaikiya Duncan, 40, was arrested this week after doorbell videos showed 15-year-old twins, barefoot and holding handcuffs, knocking on homes before dawn in their neighborhood and asking for help.
— A mother whose twin teenagers told police in Texas they were handcuffed and forced to drink bleach was in jail Friday in neighboring Louisiana, where records show the woman had pleaded guilty a decade earlier to charges of putting her kids in danger.
The brother and sister were severely malnourished and told police that abuse had been occurring for months, according to affidavit from a Harris County constable in Houston. They told authorities that Duncan handcuffed them, forced them to drink bleach and other household cleaners, and sprayed oven cleaner in their mouths"if they talked too much," the affidavit said.
"She was like, 'We are looking for help. We just need help. We just broke out of our handcuffs. Our mom had us handcuffed in the laundry room.'" Duncan was arrested hours later in Louisiana after police issued a missing children alert for five other children. All seven children, including the twins, are now in the custody of child welfare officials, authorities said. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has no previous incidents involving the family, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. while other kids were subjected to various abuses.