Custodial dad accused of keeping 13-year-old daughter chained in basement (North Toledo, Ohio)

The headline is quite misleading. It implies some random father and son kidnapped a girl. You have to go FIVE PARAGRAPHS down to find out that this was the victim's father and that this was basically a case of false imprisonment and torture, not "kidnapping" as such.


The girl has been led to believe that her mother simply took of for Las Vegas. I'm rather curious as to how she "knows" this. Is this what Daddy told her? The one who has kept her chained at the ankle?


I would seriously doubt anything this sick psychopath told this girl. And I think that it needs to be verified that the mother is in fact alive, or whether she has been "disappeared" or is deceased for any reason. Because frankly, it is very likely the father was also abusive to the mother of these kids.


http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2016/05/19/Father-son-accused-of-kidnapping-13-year-old-girl.html


Published: Thursday, 5/19/2016 - Updated: 9 hours ago


Father, son accused of kidnapping 13-year-old girl


Bonds set at $500,000 each for Timothy and Esten Ciboro


BLADE STAFF


Police have arrested Timothy Ciboro, 53, and his son, Esten Ciboro, 27, on a charge of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl and shackling her to a support beam in the basement of this house at 825 Noble Street in Toledo.


A 13-year-old girl rescued late Wednesday from a North Toledo home where she said she was kept shackled in a basement for as long as a year is now in foster care, along with two other children taken from the house, authorities said this afternoon.


The girl was rescued when she managed to uncuff herself around 9 p.m. Wednesday with a spare key and run away after the suspects both went for a jog in a park, according to a Toledo police report.


The girl was discovered by a woman who called police when she saw the girl walking in the 700 block of Water Street about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday. The woman told police the girl was carrying several bags and looked like a runaway. The woman told police that she went outside and convinced the victim to come indoors with her.


Once inside, the girl told the woman that her mother had left her and her two siblings and went to Las Vegas. She then told the woman her dad had taken her in but she had run away "because she gets in trouble for wetting the bed," for which he "puts handcuffs on her ankles" and "makes her sleep in the basement."


A judge set bonds at $500,000 each for the pair who were arrested at their residence early today and accused of kidnapping the girl, who told authorities she is the stepsister of younger defendant. The older defendant is a former Toledo firefighter.


During her basement captivity, the girl said she was “fed spoiled and old scraps of food and forced to defecate and void in a bucket containing ammonia,” according to court documents.


During their arraignment in Toledo Municipal Court on charges of kidnapping and child endangerment, Timothy Ciboro, 53, and Esten Ciboro, 27, were ordered held at the Lucas County jail in lieu of the bond pending their preliminary hearing May 26.


The victim told authorities she was “kept shackled by the ankle to a support beam in the basement of their [the suspects’] house for different periods of time, once lasting as long as a year,” [and] kept in the dark, according to a criminal complaint filed with the court.


The suspects were arrested about 1:40 a.m. at their house at 825 Noble St., where they live with the older suspect’s three underage children.


The girl told police her mother had left them to go to Las Vegas. The girl was afraid to talk to the woman who discovered her on the street, according to the police report, because her captors had told her if she talked to strangers she would “get into more trouble.” She told police she was put in the basement for wetting the bed.


The girl told authorities she escaped by using a key to unshackle herself when the two suspect left the house to go for a jog in a park. She also told authorities she had not been to school since the first grade.


Robin Reese, the executive director of the Lucas County Children Services said that the agency has been aware of the Ciboro family since at least 2014 when someone saw the girl pick up a discarded bag of french fries from a a garbage container in a park and then eat them.


Service employees then stopped by the house but saw no signs of child abuse and left the girl there, she said.


This time, children services removed all three children from the house and placed them in foster care, Ms. Reese said. All three are fine, she said, adding that the victim’s hygiene was poor but she did not appear malnourished. It appears that the girl was the only child targeted for abuse by the suspects, she said.


Ms. Reese said all three children were home-schooled, may be why the suspects escaped detection for a while, because “the education process is helpful to us to keep an eye on families.”


The spokesman refused to reveal the girl's name or the names and genders of her siblings.


Timothy Ciboro was previously a Toledo firefighter until 2004, according to city and court records. Fire Chief Luis Santiago confirmed Mr. Ciboro was a firefighter.


"I remember him and I remember him not being a very good employee," the chief said.


In 2007, Mr. Ciboro filed a lawsuit against the city fire department in federal court and several lawsuits in Lucas County Common Pleas Court against the city.


He filed a harassment and wrongful termination suit against the city that year. He also filed a lawsuit against his union, Toledo Firefighters Local 92 for failure to represent, and a misuse of authority lawsuit against the arbitrator who heard his case. He was fired after being accused of demanding a discount on ice cream for a friend at a South Toledo ice cream stand in the summer of 2004.


In U.S. District Court in Toledo, Mr. Ciboro filed a complaint on Feb. 21, 2007 over a separate incident at his fiancee's residence. In the lawsuit, Mr. Ciboro claimed he was assaulted by fire Lt. Rico Daugherty and Firefighter William Bruss in February, 2005, while they were treating a diabetic man, who became ill at the home of Mr. Ciboro's fiancee.


Mr. Ciboro claimed he was shoved into a doorway and struck on the head, neck, and back in an altercation with firefighters. At the time, Mr. Ciboro was charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault and misconduct at an emergency. One of the assault charges was dismissed; a jury in Toledo Municipal Court found him not guilty of the other count. A judge found him guilty of misconduct at an emergency, a minor misdemeanor.


Neighbor Maria Luna, 41, said the house was occupied by the father and three children, one of whom is believed to be the victim. They lived at the house for at least seven years.


Family members mainly kept to themselves and were always respectful.


"We've sat here watching everybody around us. We didn't notice anything. What did we miss?" she said.


Travis Bell, 23, said he was shocked by the news of his neighbor. He described Tim Ciboro as standoffish, and said he attempted once to speak with him.


"He just went into the house and closed the door," Mr. Bell said.


Mr. Bell said this incident reminded him of Ariel Castro in Cleveland. Castro hanged himself in prison in 2013 after being sentenced to more than 1,000 years when he pleaded guilty to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape involving three women he kept hostage in his home.


In 2013, three women who were held captive for more than a decade escaped when Castro left to get food from a nearby fast-food restaurant.


Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus had been kidnapped when lured them into his vehicle with the offer of a ride, and held in his Seymour Avenue home. They escaped May 6, 2013. Two of the survivors were acquainted with Castro.


Lucas County Children Services is still in the early stages of collecting information about the Ciboros, such as their previous employment history.


"From our information, that name has been tied to that residence for quite some time but we don't know how long yet," Julie Malkin, Lucas County Children Services spokesman, said.


"This one is an unusual situation and that's all I can say about it at this point," Ms. Malkin said. "We're still pulling information together."