TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
The Pinal County Grand Jury has indicted a Tucson couple accused of holding three girls captive on multiple counts of child abuse and kidnapping.
Fernando and Sophia Richter pleaded not guilty last month in Pima County to charges of kidnapping and child abuse. Tucson police say the Richters held Sophia's daughters captive in dungeon-like conditions, isolated from the outside world. Court documents indicated the girls were monitored by video surveillance, sometimes fed once a day, forced to drink bath water out of moldy plastic jugs, and sometimes forced to use their closets as a bathroom.
Fernando Richter also faces charges of aggravated assault, sexual abuse, and child molestation after today's arraignment in Pinal County.
Police said the Richters lived in Pinal County for several years before moving to Tucson.
Police said while the crimes came to light in Tucson, after the two girls escaped from a bedroom window right before Thanksgiving, the majority of the crimes took place at a home on East Blackcrest Loop, in Pinal County.
All three girls are now in the custody of the state, but they are living together.
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Fernando and Sophia Richter
