'Can you help us, please?': Heartbreaking video shows abused Texas twins, 16, begging for help after fleeing house of torture
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
CYPRESS, TEXAS: A heartbreaking video of 16-year-old Texas-based twins begging for help to escape has left all of its viewers feeling devastated. The boys had knocked on many doors at around 5:30 am in the morning. The time may have been the reason why a lot of people did not answer their doors at the time, fearing an attack.
However, one woman in the Malvida neighborhood in Cypress where the boys lived, did open the door for them and proved to be a lifesaver. The video of the boys begging for help, shivering and scared, captured on the Ring camera (doorbell cam) of a home, has now gone viral.
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The boys can be seen begging the woman who opened their home for them, saying, “Can you help us?...can you help us please?” She then lets them into her home no questions asked, wanting to help with no reservations.
Of the two of them, one had escaped without wearing a shirt, while both had no shoes. Later, in the clip, the boys can be seen having swollen wrists and fresh cuts all over them. There was also a dreadful amount of scarring, running all the way from their shoulders to their hands. The boys seem to look horridly malnourished as well.
In the video posted by the Sun, the twin 16-year-old boys can be seen escaping from their home in the Malvida neighborhood in Cypress. They had reportedly been held prisoner in their laundry room and forced to drink their own urine and eat their own feces. They were also put into handcuffs to prevent escape. However, the boys found the key in their mother’s purse and freed themselves.
The incident has sparked national outrage, with talks centered around torture and children living in horrific conditions. The horrendous treatment of the boys by their mother Zaikiya Duncan, 40, and her boyfriend Jova Terrell, 27, prompted immediate action by the police and they were both taken into custody.
The woman who helped the boys had spoken to the media as well. She told KHOU 11, “They were so skinny and so frail,” adding, “They told me that their mom kept them locked in the laundry room, naked, zip tied from the ankles, and handcuffed from the wrist.”