Mothers of 11 children found at New Mexico compound arrested

TAOS, N.M. — Three women believed to be the mothers of 11 children found hungry and living in a filthy makeshift compound in rural northern New Mexico have been arrested following the weekend arrests of two men, authorities said Monday.

A message that people were starving, believed sent by someone inside the compound, led to the discovery of the children. A boy last seen in Alabama in December, travelling with one of the men who was arrested, has not been found.

Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe of Taos County, N.M., said the women and the two men face charges of child abuse. He identified the women as Jany Leveille, 38-yearold Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahha, 35. They were arrested in the town of Taos.

The children, ranging in age from one to 15, were removed from the compound in the small community of Amalia, near the Colorado border, and turned over to state child-welfare workers.

Police are still looking for AG Wahhaj, reported missing from Georgia’s Clayton County, Hogrefe said. The boy’s mother told police he left with his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, for a trip to a park and never returned. He was three at the time.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was detained on an outstanding warrant in Georgia alleging child abduction. Lucas Morten was jailed on suspicion of harbouring a fugitive, Hogrefe said. It was not clear over the weekend if they had lawyers.

Clayton County police said in a missing persons bulletin that Wahhaj and his son were last seen Dec. 13 in Alabama, travelling with five other children and two adults.

The search at the compound came amid a two-month investigation in collaboration with Clayton County authorities and the FBI, according to Hogrefe. He said FBI agents had surveilled the area a few weeks ago but did not find probable cause to search the property.

That changed when Georgia detectives forwarded a message to Hogrefe’s office that initially had been sent to a third party, saying: “We are starving and need food and water.”

The sheriff said there was reason to believe the message came from someone inside the compound.

What authorities found was what Hogrefe called “the saddest living conditions and poverty” he has seen in 30 years on the job.

Other than a few potatoes and a box of rice, there was little food in the compound, which Hogrefe said consisted of a small travel trailer buried in the ground and covered by plastic with no water, plumbing or electricity.