Mother Held for Hiding Daughter in Storage Shed

The mother of a 17-year-old girl found locked in a rented storage unit with little more than a blanket and some peanut butter has been arrested on charges of kidnaping and neglect.

The girl spent weekdays in the dark, windowless shed for at least two months after her mother said she took her out of school because she is a slow learner, officials said.

Sheriff’s deputies, tipped by neighbors of the storage complex, found the girl. The neighbors reported seeing two women go into the unit each day for several days and only one come out.

The girl’s mother, Kathy Russell, told investigators she did not want her husband to know that the teen-ager wasn’t in school, so she put her in the rented unit weekday mornings and retrieved her between 3 and 4 p.m.

Orangeburg County Sheriff C. R. Smith said investigators were looking into why the girl was kept out of school and for how long. The mother was in jail Saturday in lieu of $300,000 bond.

Russell’s husband, Milton, told authorities he had been giving her tuition money each month because he thought his daughter was attending Orangeburg Preparatory School. But the headmaster said the girl was not a student there.

Milton Russell said at a bond hearing for his wife that he worked many overtime hours and left her in charge of matters at home.

The family’s home burned earlier this year. Since then, they have been living at a motel.

Deputies found the girl crouched in a corner of the storage unit, Smith said. A chair, a blanket, a box, a jar of peanut butter and several cans of soft drinks were inside, he said.

Russell said his daughter never said anything about not going to school or about being locked up. The girl, who is healthy, was moved to a foster home, Smith said.