In a harrowing case emerging from Texas, two sisters are now facing federal charges after being accused of subjecting a 12-year-old girl to severe abuse, including starvation, beating, and torture. The child had initially sought their help.

Brenda Mariana Garcia, aged 39, and Tania Evette Garcia, 37, have been indicted on federal charges for kidnapping and forced labor, both serious felonies, as announced by federal prosecutors. These charges add to the gravity of the accusations against the sisters.

The pair was originally apprehended in October 2025, facing state charges that included felony injury to a child, unlawful restraint, and invasive visual recording. Their indictment by federal authorities took place last month, escalating the legal proceedings.

The investigation was triggered on September 28, 2025, when a concerned witness observed the young victim walking alone on a busy street in Texas, clad only in boxers and a shirt. The child appeared “malnourished, injured, and had a zip-tie around her wrist.” Emergency services responded promptly, noting multiple injuries, including severe head lacerations and facial bruises.

The girl recounted to medics that she had “just escaped a nearby home” where she had endured six months of physical abuse at the hands of Brenda and Tania Garcia, according to federal documents.

Authorities discovered the victim had a shaved head and was using a boy’s name, which led to initial confusion about her gender. Investigators revealed that the sisters had coerced her to present herself as a boy.

In a forensic interview, investigators learned that the child’s teenage mother had been deported to Honduras several years ago, leaving her with an uncle who had allegedly been sexually abusing her for years. The victim disclosed the abuse to her friend in March 2025. That friend told her mother, Brenda Garcia, about the abuse. Brenda Garcia then “devised a plan” to get the victim away from the uncle, picking her up from the bus stop and taking her to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to report the abuse.

The uncle, Felix Bustillo, is currently charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child in Harris County, Texas.

The victim then went to stay with Brenda Garcia and Tania Garcia. However, the child said Brenda Garcia began physically abusing her that same night, beating the girl for supposedly making “contradictory” statements in her report to the sheriff.

“After this event, [the victim’s] abuse continued and escalated over the course of several months. [The victim] reported that she was beaten with cords, laptop chargers, a cane, and sticks by both Brenda and Tania Garcia. [The victim] was not permitted to eat,” the complaint states. “Brenda and Tania Garcia would strike [the victim] in the face with an ice pack. [The victim] was forced to strip naked during many of the beatings. [The victim] advised that Brenda Garcia would photograph and video record the abuse using her cellphone. [The victim] advised she believed that Brenda Garcia shared the videos of the abuse with others, including Garcia’s family members.”

The Garcias allegedly forced the girl to sleep on the floor in the living room while zip-tied to a table. She was not permitted to use the restroom and was often forced to urinate on herself before being cut free.

The victim said she was forced to sweep, dust, clean windows, take out the trash, do laundry, and care for the family’s roosters, ducks, and dogs, all of which were used “as a form of punishment.” If she did not complete a task, she was allegedly beaten. The two other minor kids in the home were “never expected to do chores,” investigators said.

“In short, Brenda and Tania Garcia treated [the victim] as a slave and forced her to work inside the residence and outside, cleaning and maintaining the livestock and property,” the affidavit says. “There is not an occasion in the seven months of text messages occurring during the relevant time period between Brenda and Tania Garcia where they instruct another minor in the home to assist with the types of work they require from [the victim].”

Text messages obtained from Brenda Garcia’s cellphone allegedly showed the sisters regularly referring to the victim by derogatory names such as “baldy,” “idiot,” and “f—ing b—.” At least once, they also told the child to “just die already.”

Videos allegedly showed additional abuse, including the victim “crawling on the ground” with “bruised and swollen eyes” after being caught eating out of the trash. Brenda Garcia can be heard laughing as she makes the child “bark like a little dog” and calls her a “raccoon.”

Other abuse allegedly inflicted on the child by the Garcia sisters included strangling and beating her with cords, belts, sticks, and other objects.

The victim’s mother told investigators she initially believed Brenda Garcia was trying to help her daughter, but said Brenda Garcia soon began ignoring her calls and refusing to let the mother speak to her child. Brenda Garcia later told the mother she “would have to send an army” to get her daughter back.

Brenda Garcia is also accused of telling the victim’s CPS caseworker that the victim had gone back to Honduras to be with her mother. She then warned the child that “now no one would be looking for her anymore.”

Both sisters are currently in federal custody without bond, records show. They are scheduled to appear for bond hearings on Feb. 13.