A sickening case of alleged abuse is unfolding in San Bernardino County, where prosecutors have filed multiple felony charges against a couple and their adult daughter accused of systematically torturing six foster children for years.
Tina Key and Kenneth Key, both 60, and their 23-year-old daughter, Kaitlynn Key, are each facing six counts of torture and one count of child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
The trio was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse.
The investigation began on Feb. 13 after San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded to a home in the 13000 block of Helena Drive in Victorville following reports of “severe and prolonged abuse and neglect” involving six foster children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 16, officials said.
Deputies identified the Keys as the suspects, leading to their arrest and booking.
“It is alleged that the foster parents and their adult daughter subjected all six children … to years of physical, emotional, and mental abuse,” the district attorney’s office stated in a press release. “The abuse included daily beatings, strangulation to the point of unconsciousness, and punishments of withholding food and water from the children for a period of days.”
Authorities have not released details about the children’s injuries or medical conditions.
Neighbors on Helena Drive, who spoke to KTLA on the condition of anonymity on Tuesday, said the children appeared to be isolated. They reported rarely seeing them outside the home, except for brief moments when they were being moved into the family car.
“Other than that, these kids never came outside like normal kids. They were only allowed to go to the backyard,” one female neighbor recounted with evident distress.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez urged community members to remain vigilant and report any suspicions of child abuse or neglect.
“Any kind of child abuse or neglect going in a home, whether it’s a biological home, a family home, foster home, reach out and report that,” Rodriguez pleaded. “We would much rather do an investigation and find that everything is just fine in that home than find out several years later that there was some abuse.”
Investigators are urging anyone with additional information related to this case to contact Detective Katie Merrill of the Specialized Investigations Division, Crimes Against Children Detail at (909) 890-4904.