11:46 PM CDT on Monday, July 20, 2009

By STEVE THOMPSON / The Dallas Morning News
stevethompson@dallasnews.com

Three children found shut inside a Love Field area motel bathroom this month were so emaciated that they vomited when child protective workers first tried to feed them, authorities say.

Their ribs protruded. Their cheeks and eyes sank into dark hollows. Their lips were dry, swollen and cracked.

Authorities say the children – ages 6, 10 and 11 – were kept inside the bathroom day and night for almost a year, maybe longer.

Their mother, Abneris Santiago, told investigators that the bathroom's toilet had been broken for several months but that she would flush and clean it every morning so the children "would be in a clean place."

Court records describe in horrifying detail the physical, emotional and sexual abuse that authorities say the children's stepfather inflicted – and their mother failed to stop.

So far, Santiago, 30, faces a charge of injury to a child. Her husband, 37-year-old Alfred Santiago, faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and continuous sexual abuse. Both are being held in the Dallas County Jail.

Authorities discovered the children after their mother's brother drove from Ohio to check on the family and called Dallas police. The brother, Abner Santiago, said his sister had spoken to their mother on the phone.

"My sister told her that Alfredo was being very abusive to her, that he's been threatening her, that he's been threatening to kill the kids," the brother said.

Family members had been concerned about Abneris Santiago for several years since she met Alfred Santiago and abruptly moved from Florida, where her mother had been "basically raising the kids for her," the brother said.

Neither parent has an arrest history in Dallas County. Alfred Santiago's record in Florida includes arrests on misdemeanor battery and DWI charges.

On July 2, Abner Santiago found his sister at the barbecue restaurant where she worked. They called police to ask for an escort while they took the kids from where the family lived – a suite in the Budget Suites in the 8100 block of North Stemmons Freeway.

Inside the suite, officers found Alfred Santiago, along with a baby in a crib. The child, the Santiagos' 1-year-old daughter, appeared healthy.

Then officers found Abneris Santiago's other three children – fathered by different men – shut inside a bathroom. The children's uncle remembers watching them emerge from the suite.

"My jaw just hit the floor," Abner Santiago said. "I just broke down."

The children were taken to Children's Medical Center Dallas, where they remained for 10 days.

The 11-year-old daughter told investigators she thought they'd been shut in the bathroom since October. Authorities weren't certain whether she meant 2007 or 2008.

The only times they were allowed to leave the bathroom was when Alfred Santiago took a shower, the girl said. She said that he'd been raping her for three years and that she'd told her mother about it several times.

The children went without food for days, the girl said. They hoarded it in their clothes and in shampoo bottles, not knowing when they might get more.

The girl said she last remembered being in school several years ago, before completing the third grade.

The 10-year-old, a boy, was covered with bruises in various stages of healing. He told investigators that Alfred Santiago, before moving from Florida, was a "nice, nice, gentle man," court records say.

Once the family moved to Texas, the boy told investigators, "That is when my living nightmare began."

He said Santiago began beating him and his mother, particularly when he was drinking.

The boy told investigators that Alfred Santiago accused his stepchildren of being "rapists." Santiago told their mother they had molested their youngest sister, and she believed him, the boy said. He explained that was why they were not allowed around other children, eventually not allowed outside, and finally shut inside the bathroom.

After an interview with the boy, a child protective worker asked him if he needed anything. "I'm safe, that is all I need," the boy replied, according to a CPS report.

Investigators also spoke with Abneris Santiago. The mother told them her husband began to abuse the family gradually after they moved to Texas. She said she worked six days a week, leaving the children in her husband's care, because she had to "put a roof over their head," according to a CPS report.

She told investigators she fed the children breakfast and dinner and tried to "sneak them food," the report says, but in doing so, she "risked a beating."

The mother admitted smoking marijuana daily to "cope with the situation," the report said. She said she knew she had to get out of the situation "before something really bad happened."

"You have no idea what I've been through," she said, adding, the report says, as an afterthought, "or the children."

The report said that Abneris Santiago appeared obese but that she repeated how hungry she was and said she'd been so upset she hadn't eaten for two days.

Abneris and Alfred Santiago did not respond immediately to interview requests Monday. Abner Santiago said he met his brother-in-law only briefly.

"He didn't seem like the best guy in the world," he said. "But I would have never thought that he would have been this monster."

As for his sister, he said the family supports her and sees her as a victim, but he also thinks authorities did the right thing arresting her.

"I'm sure she was being abused, but when you see the kids, something just hits you," he said. "You don't know how another human being could let kids get to that point."

All four children are in temporary foster care. Abner Santiago said his mother, who lives in Tampa, Fla., would like to gain custody.

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Emphasis added by H4K Editor