Inset, left to right: Tania Garcia and Brenda Garcia (Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Montgomery County Jail (Google Maps).
Two sisters from Texas are in custody after being accused of spending several months torturing a 12-year-old girl who sought their help. Instead of assistance, the girl suffered beatings with household objects, frequent cuts, choking, and was urged to “just die.”
Authorities have arrested Brenda Garcia, 38, and Tania Garcia, 37, charging each with felony injury to a child, unlawful restraint, and invasive visual recording.
According to a news release by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, investigators from the special victims unit responded on Sept. 28 to a report of a 12-year-old who revealed ongoing physical and sexual abuse. The child, taken to Texas Children’s Hospital, had injuries that medical personnel verified as signs of abuse and malnutrition.
Five days after the initial emergency call, on Oct. 3, investigators obtained arrest warrants for the Garcia sisters, arresting them without any complications.
“Ensuring the safety and well-being of children is my utmost priority,” Sheriff Wesley Doolittle of Montgomery County stated. “This case is profoundly troubling, but it underscores the importance of community vigilance and the bravery required to report such matters. Together, we can safeguard the most vulnerable and ensure justice is delivered.”
Due to the ongoing investigation, the sheriff’s office has refrained from disclosing additional details related to the case.
However, court documents obtained by KTRK provided additional details about the abuse the child was allegedly forced to endure.
According to the report, before moving in with the Garcia sisters, the victim had been staying with an uncle because her biological mother lives in another country. During that time, the child said, her uncle repeatedly sexually assaulted her, which led to her asking for help from Brenda Garcia, who was friends with the uncle.
Brenda Garcia allegedly agreed to help, and in March allowed the victim to move into her home, where she lived with her sister. But authorities said the sisters began to physically and emotionally abuse the victim almost immediately after she moved in with them.
The victim reportedly told authorities that the sisters would regularly tie her up and strike her with objects, including belts, electric cords, and sticks. She said they would also cut her with scissors and choke her — sometimes manually and other times using a belt.
When the victim was able to escape her restraints and get away from the sisters, she was reportedly covered from head-to-toe in bruises, cuts, and scars, including a gash on her forehead that had become infected.
In an interview with detectives, the sisters brushed off the victim’s claims, telling investigators the 12-year-old was “psychotic” and that her injuries were self-inflicted, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported. But cellphone videos and security footage from inside the sisters’ home reportedly contradicted the defendants’ claims.
The alleged abuse reportedly included the victim being strangled with a belt and told to “just die already,” being beaten with various objects, being bound to chairs and emotionally degraded, being starved and then forced to eat off of the floor, and being photographed naked.
Brenda and Tania Garcia are currently being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bonds of $200,000 each. It was not immediately clear when they were scheduled to appear in court.
