Dad arrested for abusing disabled teen daughter (Sacramento, California)

Is this a single or custodial dad? Notice that there is no mention of a mother in the home--or anywhere else. What happened to Mom? How did Dad apparently manage to secure complete access to this vulnerable girl?

You have to wonder with a man who is apparently as volatile and controlling as this one is if the mother experienced violence as well. Statistically, it is highly likely that she did.

Dad is identified as BRETT SCOTT HOLDAWAY.

http://www.news10.net/news/article/233675/2/Sheriff-Sacramento-dad-abused-special-needs-daughter

Sheriff: Sacramento dad abused special needs daughter

1:43 AM, Mar 5, 2013  
C. Johnson
Dave Marquis

SACRAMENTO, CA - A Sacramento man was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment after he allegedly hit and kicked his mentally disabled teenage daughter.

The 17-year-old girl, was also found to have marks on her wrists as if she had been restrained and burns on her body, according to Sacramento County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Ramos. The sheriff's department was alerted to the girl just after 11:30 last Friday night at the Markston Apartments on the 1700 block of Markston Road. A caller reported seeing a man who looked like he was assaulting the teen as the pair walked, Ramos said. When the responding deputy arrived, he reported locating the teen in question locked inside of a car.

Ramos said the girl was not tied up but couldn't or was unable to understand the deputy's request to unlock the car door. Fire department personnel came, unlocked the car and transported the girl to the hospital.

The apartment manager, who gave her name only as Tina, said the girl apparently resisted her father's attempt to get her to enter an apartment.

"Because of her disability she was having anxiety or something and ... that's when he started to do something to her out there," according to the apartment manager.

"He kneed her and hit her," she said.

At Kaiser North Hospital, medical staff found ligature marks on the girl's wrists.

"She was clearly bound at that area fairly recently as evidenced by the marks still being there," said Ramos. "Later on at the hospital, they found some other evidence of injuries consistent with hot water burns or immersion burns on her lower extremities."

The car was registered to 53-year-old Brett Scott Holdaway, Ramos said. When Holdaway left the apartment complex an hour and a half after his daughter was taken away, deputies arrested him.

The daughter is now in the care of Child Protective Services. Doctors said she has the mental capacity of a 2 or 3-year-old child.

Investigators would like to hear from anyone who may have more information on Holdaway's relationship with his daughter and whether there have been other instances of abuse.

"I think a natural curiosity or question is to wonder how long this abuse had been going on and what other kinds of abuse this victim may have incurred at the hands of her father, unfortunately," said Ramos.

Holdaway is being held in the Sacramento County Jail.