Abused twins escape, ask for help

CYPRESS, Texas — 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.

Zaikiya Duncan, 40, was arrested in Louisiana this week after doorbell videos showed the 15-year-old siblings, barefoot and holding handcuffs, knocking on homes before dawn in their suburban Houston neighborhood and asking for help. Duncan’s live-in boyfriend also was arrested.

Both were in jail in Baton Rouge, about 250 miles east of Houston, awaiting extradition on charges of aggravated assault, according to authorities. It was not clear Friday whether either had an attorney.

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.

Both had lacerations on their wrist and escaped Tuesday after the brother found a key to the handcuffs and hid it in his mouth, according to the affidavit.

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.

In 2012 in Louisiana, Duncan and another man were accused of locking their children in a closet while other kids were subjected to various abuses. One of her children, then 5, was taken to a school clinic with injuries that included burns consistent with being submerged in hot water, according to court records. It was not immediately known whether that child was one of the twins.