A Lancaster man and his girlfriend have been accused of locking his sister in a storage shed behind their house and beating her with a cane for a year.
Elias Abdurahman, 61, and his girlfriend, 50-year-old Sara Kebede Tadesse have both been charged with one count each of false imprisonment by violence, torture, assault with a deadly weapon and dependent adult abuse, along with an allegation that they personally inflicted great bodily injury, reports ABC7.
Cops were alerted to the shed after reports of a woman screaming on September 22nd. When the found the victim, she appeared malnourished, frail, and with fresh and old wounds on her body. Authorities then arrested Abdurahman and Tadesse.
The two are accused by prosecutors of torturing the victim for the purpose of revenge, extortion and for sadistic purposes, according to the criminal complaint.
“I could actually hear a woman, an older woman yelling for help, what sounded like somebody being hit or being forced to be submerged in some type of water,” an area resident told ABC 7. She added that she and her husband had seen the victim constantly covered in bruises – but, when they asked her what was going on, she refused help and stated that she was in a car accident.
Both Abdurahman and Tadesse face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
