Texas Couple Enslaved, Beat, and Called 5-Year-Old Girl a ‘Whore’ Until She Escaped Out a Window: DOJ

After 16 years, D.D.*, who was allegedly kept as a slave in a Fort Worth, Texas, home since the age of 5, decided to escape.

After a fight with her purported captors, the 21-year-old leaped out a second-story window, spent a night in a park, and put her trust in a group of neighbors she’d known for most of her life, the Department of Justice says.

She told the neighbors in June 2016 that she’d been beaten, whipped with an electrical cord, and forced to sleep on the floor. But one of them didn’t believe her, and D.D. was made to return to the home of Mohamed Toure, 57, and Denise Cros-Toure, 57, who allegedly brought her to Texas from Guinea when she was 5 and could not speak English.

Over the next several weeks, D.D. used an e-tablet in the home to record conversations with the couple and gather further proof of her enslavement, prosecutors said. Once convinced, a handful of neighbors helped D.D. get away from her alleged captors for good on Aug. 17, 2016. She fled on foot with just a duffel bag and a backpack.

Toure and Cros-Toure were indicted Wednesday on five counts, including forced labor, harboring an alien for financial gain, conspiracy to commit forced labor, and conspiracy to harbor an alien for financial gain. The couple was arrested in April and then placed on home detention after their release, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Scott H. Palmer, the Guinean-native couple’s then-attorney, told the newspaper in April that the criminal complaint against his clients “is riddled with salacious allegations, fabrications, and lies.”

“We look forward to amassing a mountain of evidence to refute the government’s portrayal of our clients,” Palmer told the Morning News in a prepared statement, “and look forward to revealing the motivation of this woman to lie, betray, and attempt to destroy the family that took her in at the request of her father for a better life in the United States.”

Another defense attorney listed in court records for Toure and Cros-Toure did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast early Thursday morning.

The harrowing details of D.D.’s alleged enslavement—and escape—are included in a criminal complaint against Toure and Cros-Toure filed by the Justice Department. That document, filed in April, includes abuses suffered by D.D., who was taken from her village in Guinea in January 2000, when she was a young child.

Her only memory of her journey, according to court documents, involved “a kind flight attendant who gave her cookies and a toy” on her way to the United States. At the time, she spoke only Malinké and French, the complaint states.

“The defendants required her to cook, clean, do the laundry, perform yard work, and paint, as well as care for their five children,” according to an April press release from the DOJ. “Although the victim was close in age to the children, the defendants denied her access to schooling and the other opportunities afforded to their children.”

She allegedly slept on the floor in one of the children’s bedrooms, rising at 6:30 a.m. to begin her work and only falling asleep after the Toures’ children went to bed at night. She was not allowed to eat with the family or play with other children, wore “dirty unkempt clothing,” and never attended school, the Department of Justice claims.

All the while, according to the complaint, Cros-Toure called her a “slave,” “whore,” and “just a little nothing.” In one instance, Cros-Toure ripped an earring out from the girl’s left earlobe, prosecutors said.

D.D. didn’t know how old she was because the family never celebrated her birthday, according to documents. On some occasions, as punishment, Cros-Toure allegedly threatened to send her back to Guinea or kicked her out of the house, forcing D.D. to sleep in a nearby park until she was allowed to return.

From the age of 5 to 21, the alleged threats and abuses were all she knew. That changed on Father’s Day in 2016, when D.D. did not prepare dinner for the family. The Toures began fighting, and Cros-Toure blocked the stairway when D.D. tried to flee.

So she leaped out the window—and ran for her life through the shattered glass.

*D.D. is only identified by this acronym and “FV-1” in Department of Justice court documents.