Southern California couple charged with torture of 6 foster children

VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Three members of a Southern California family were charged Wednesday with torturing six foster children between the ages of 4 and 16 over a span of years, prosecutors said.

Kenneth Michael Key and Tina Marie Key, both 60, and their 23-year-old daughter Katlynn Marresa Key were arrested this week in Victorville, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.

It wasn’t immediately known if they have lawyers. Messages were sent to the county public defender’s office asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.

The investigation began Feb. 13 when authorities received a tip from a child abuse hotline, said sheriff’s spokesperson Mara Rodriguez. The children were immediately removed from the home, Rodriguez said.

Prosecutors say the Keys subjected all six children to years of physical, emotional and mental abuse.

“The abuse included daily beatings, strangulation to the point of unconsciousness, and punishments of withholding food and water from the children for a period of days,” the District Attorney’s office said in a statement.

All three defendants are charged with torture and child abuse. They are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each.

Authorities haven’t said how the alleged abuse went on for years without being detected. Messages were left for San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, which oversees the foster family programs.

The investigation was reminiscent of the case of David and Louise Turpin, the California couple who pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point they stopped growing.