Officials charge couple with serial child torture

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Madison police continue to investigate an apparent case of severe child abuse after a passerby called 911 last week and reported seeing a 15-year-old girl outside in her pajamas who appeared to be malnourished.

Police found the girl a few blocks from her home and took her to the hospital. The teen weighed a mere 70 pounds, and doctors assessed her as a victim of “serial child torture.”

Police said her family lived in an upstairs part of their home, while the girl was forced to spend most of her time in their basement without much to eat.

Charges are still pending against the girl’s 40-year-old father, Chad Chritton, and his 42-year-old wife, Melinda Drabek-Chritton. Their bond is set at $20,000.

The girl’s 18-year-old stepbrother, Joshua Drabek, was also arrested for a probation violation. The teen victim reportedly told police she was forced to live in the basement of her father’s house for over five years. She was apparently told to eat her own feces and any food she could scrape up from the floor, laundry or garbage.

Police said an alarm sounded if the girl tried to go upstairs with the rest of her family and that she was being home-schooled by her stepmother. The teen said both parents physically abused her; she’d run away from the house last week after fearing she’d be thrown down the stairs.

Tags: crime, courts, wisconsin