The bodies of two teenagers have been found by authorities near their home in Savannah, Georgia.
14-year-old Mary Crocker and her 16-year-old brother Elwyn Crocker Jr. were located by authorities in an area behind their family’s trailer where they had been buried.
The children’s remains were found in December.
Police are reporting that Mary had undergone horrific treatment prior to her death and that her body revealed the effects of her abuse.
Not only was the girl gaunt and malnourished, but authorities are saying that she had obviously been beaten and it appears tortured to death.
Horrifically enough, the children appeared to have been tortured and murdered by members of their own family.
As of now, five relatives have been charged with the deaths of Mary and Junior: The children’s father, their step-mother, their step-mother’s brother, their step-grandmother, and the step-grandmother’s boyfriend are all being implicated in the murders.
Mary and Junior had both been pulled out of the public eye and were being homeschooled, making it difficult for anyone to notice their disappearance or signs of abuse.
As of now, Junior’s body is still undergoing examination, but investigators report that he may have been killed two years before his little sister.
Mary’s death is being estimated to have taken place on Oct. 28th, 2018 and, while her body is still being examined, authorities have already been able to produce enough evidence to make a strong case against her family.
Police found a photo on the father’s smartphone that reveals Mary obviously starving and completely naked, sitting in front of a dog cage in the kitchen.
According to authorities, Mary was routinely beaten with a wide arrangement of objects, was malnourished and only fed food that were spiked with liquids like rice vinegar, forced to go naked, and made to stay in a dog pen.
Baths only occurred when the cage was dragged into the bathroom and the teenager was sprayed with water through the bars.
Mary’s body suffered from the dog cage, causing her to have swollen joints and a crooked back that her family tried to straighten by taping her to a ladder.
An 11-year-old relative reports that he was forced to beat Mary with a frying pan when she “stole” food.
Georgia’s Division of Family and Child Services are under fire when it became known that they had received an abuse report but opted not to follow up with an investigation since the abuse had happened a year earlier.