Zaikiya Duncan Bio – Zaikiya Duncan Wiki
Zaikiya Duncan and her boyfriend, Jova Terrell, 27, have been arrested after the 16-year-old twins managed to break free from their handcuffs and flee to a neighbour’s home.
Age:
Zaikiya Duncan is 40 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
Two twins escaped their Texas home on Tuesday after allegedly enduring horrific abuse before authorities arrested their mother and her boyfriend, who had gone to Louisiana.
Citing court documents, KHOU-TV reports 40-year-old Zaikiya Duncan and 27-year-old Jova Terrell allegedly poured bleach on the genitals and down the throats of the 16-year-old boy and girl, who police say were held captive in their Cypress, Texas, home.
The twins, who said they were kept naked, handcuffed, and zip-tied in their laundry room, were allegedly forced to urinate and defecate on themselves, drink household cleaners, and ingest dozens of Benadryl tablets at one point, according to the outlet.
In the documents, which NBC also obtained, the teens, who Harris County authorities said appeared visibly beaten and malnourished, alleged they were only fed sandwiches one to three times per week and were often beaten with extension cords and metal poles.
The teens allegedly broke free after the boy managed to get a hold of the keys to their handcuffs, ABC 13 reports.
The siblings then ran door-to-door to neighbours’ homes, pleading for help, until an unidentified woman finally took them in.
“They said, ‘Can you help us, can you help us?'” the woman recalled to the station. “They were so skinny and so frail. They just looked like they had been through a lot.”
“The more I asked and realized how severe the situation was, it was just a flood of emotions that came over me,” she said. “How a mother could do this to her kids and… I feel like my tears are out of frustration, anger and sadness.”
The outlet reports the woman called 911, but when deputies arrived at the twins’ home, Duncan, Terrell, and her five other children, ages 7 to 14, were already gone, triggering an AMBER alert.
According to Harris County authorities, Duncan and Terrell were arrested in Baton Rouge, La., later that day.
The pair, denied bond, face charges of injury to a child.
It was unclear if Duncan or Terrell retained attorneys or entered pleas to the charges.
They will be deported from Baton Rouge to Texas in the coming days.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.