Mother-of-15 brutally tortured kids for years and made them watch as she boiled their puppies in a pot, investigation reveals
Shocking allegations have come up against a couple in New Mexico. Martha Crouch and her husband Timothy of Aztec, New Mexico, were arrested on Monday, June 24, after authorities spoke to a number of their adult and young children living in different states, finding some disturbing details about the mother. The 53-year-old woman is said to have beaten and tortured some of her 15 kids as well as forcefully made them watch as she boiled their puppies alive, authorities have said.
Timothy has a theft charge from 1999 in Alaska and a forgery charge that was later dismissed. Authorities also found a dog buried in their backyard that had been shot to death, serving as a punishment to the children.
The couple is said to have had numerous run-ins with the law in Missouri, Alaska, Kansas, and Montana. Martha was charged with child abuse and extreme cruelty to animals while Timothy has an obstruction charge.
The investigation was opened by the San Juan County sheriff's office when one of the Crouch's children was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. When they were pursuing the case, they chanced upon something even more terrifying — allegations of abuse, torture, and extreme animal cruelty, although the assault charge was false. During the investigation, one of the teen daughters of the couple informed them that the abuse was so bad that two of her siblings took her to Arizona to keep her out of harm's way.
According to the Associated Press, the girl told cops that when one of their dogs had babies, their mother "took the puppies and put them into a giant pot and boiled them, making all the kids watch". She is also said to have poisoned a kitten. She wanted to go to school, she said, and when she told her mother about it, she was hit with a plastic spatula.
Another child of the family, whose age has not been disclosed, said that she had become pregnant at 14 and her mother had beaten her till she had a miscarriage. One of the daughters also alleged that when they lived in Alaska, her mother thought she was overweight and had her kept in a "fat chain" for three years. A son said he had been "beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by his parents" and "had BBs still inside his arm from when the mother shot him with a shotgun". The kids reportedly said that every time suspicions arose about them, they would flee.