Starving girl held captive in home was shackled by the neck

More details emerged this weekend about three starving children found in a Monterey County home earlier this month.

Two adults, identified as Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deana, 44, were arrested. They are being held on $50,000 bail. Craig once worked as a correctional officer in New Mexico, the Monterey Herald reported.

They face charges of felony child cruelty and false imprisonment.

“When you’ve got over 30 years in the business, you’ve seen way too many of these types of things before. But this is, in terms of child abuse and neglect, this is towards the top,” Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said in a press conference Friday video recorded by the Salinas Californian.

Authorities found two chains hanging from a wall in the home that officials believe were used to restrain the kids.

“The conditions are reported as squalid,” Miller said, according to the Californian video. “There was very little food in the residence.”

Two boys, 5 and 6, and a girl were taken into protective custody and are recovering. Authorities said chains appear to have been used to restrain the children. The girl was shackled at times by the neck to prevent her from getting to food, officials said.

The girl, 8, looked like “a concentration camp” victim, Miller told the Monterey Herald, adding that the children had “hardly eaten for months.”

“It seems that the little girl was the major target of this abuse,” he added.

Police continued to investigate how long the children had been held at the home in Salinas where they were found last week.

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