A New Jersey couple has been charged after an 18-year-old escaped their residence and said she was forced to live in a dog crate for a year, given a bucket to use as a bathroom and severely abused over a seven-year span.
Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, of Gloucester Township, were charged with kidnapping and Mosley with additional counts of sexual assault, The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police announced Wednesday.
The 18-year-old female, who officials described as the daughter of Spencer and step-daughter of Mosley, had escaped the home on May 8, assisted by a neighbor, prosecutors and police said in a news release. The abuse was then reported to police on Saturday.
The victim said Spencer and Mosley had abused her since 2018.
Around that time, she was removed from school when she was in the sixth grade “at Spencer’s discretion and confined to her home,” officials said.
The victim said shortly after she was pulled out of school, she was “forced to live in a dog crate for approximately one year and was let out periodically,” the release said.
Later, she was forced to live in a padlocked bathroom and was chained up. She told police she would be let out of the bathroom when family visited the home. At other times she lived in a bare room with a bucket to use as a toilet.
The victim told police the room had an alarm system that would “alert Spencer and Mosley if she tried to leave.”
The victim also reported being beaten with a belt and sexually abused by Mosley, officials stated.
Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins told reporters Wednesday it was “one of the most despicable cases we’ve run across.”
He said that police responded on May 8 to Wawa and met with the teen and took a statement from her. She described the situation as a domestic violence case but did not disclose the full scope of the abuse, Harkins said. She was offered domestic violence services, which she declined at the time. Police were called again on Saturday night, when the full story came out.
Detectives searched the home and found the victim lived in “squalid conditions” crammed with numerous Great Dane large dogs, chinchillas and other animals.
A 13-year-old child also lived in the home and was removed from school years prior at Spencer’s discretion, and both girls were allegedly homeschooled, the release said.
Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay did not disclose specific details of how the girl escaped or her captivity.
“Anyone who’s been confined for a period of seven years, held in these conditions, living in squalid filth, is going to be damaged, psychologically, physically, emotionally, mentally, and as you also can appreciate, when it comes to cases involving child endangerment and child abuse and sexual assault, confidentiality to protect the victims is paramount. So we’re limited in all the details,” she said.
Harkins said police had no indication about child abuse going on at the home, but had some animal complaints in the past.
Spencer was unemployed and Mosley worked for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) as a train conductor. He was one of the employees honored by SEPTA in March, described as a train engineer.
Spencer and Mosley were both charged Sunday with kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, five counts of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child — abuse/neglect, criminal restraint, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Mosley was further charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child — sexual contact.
They were arrested at their home on Sunday and remanded to the Camden County Correctional Facility pending detention hearings set for Friday. A public defender listed for the couple declined to comment on the case.
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