Victim's motherMADISON (WKOW) - As neighbors and residents react to the allegations of abuse that took place inside a Madison home, a family friend of the accused says Melinda and Chad Chritton are good people.
"They always seemed to take good care of her," said Sam Stenbroten.
They two are accused of keeping Chritton's teenage daughter in the basement - torturing and starving her. Police say an alarm would sound if the girl would try to come upstairs and that she couldn't even use the bathroom.
"The lock on the door wasn't meant to keep her downstairs, said Stenbroten. "She just liked to be downstairs and didn't like to come upstairs a lot. She said that she preferred to go to the bathroom in different containers, instead of using the real bathroom."
Stenbroten says he knows this because he visited the house daily and he is best friend's with Joshua, the step-mother's son.
In the meantime, 27 News tracked down the victim's biological mother in Texas. Heidi Pease says she gave up custody of her daughter back in 2006 because at the time she was homeless and in an abusive relationship. She tell us that she tried repeatedly to get in touch with her daughter and that Chad Chritton wouldn't allow it, turning away phone calls and letters. Pease says all he would tell her is that her daughter was sick with some sort of disorder.
"That she had a medical condition that made her want to eat other things besides real food," said Stenbroten.
Stenbroten says the eating disorder would explain why authorities say the 15-year-old girl weighed only 70 pounds.
The biological mother says she is leaving Texas Wednesday night and driving here to Madison to be with her daughter and work with detectives. She says wants to take her daughter back home to the people who love her.
