A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped for months and left to die in her bed by her father and grandfather.
Raymond Felix Pena, 50, the girl’s father, and her step-grandfather Brett Miles Minkler, 64, were charged with rape, murder and child neglect resulting in death.
Police were first alerted to the girl’s plight when she called 911 from the home in Goshen, California, on January 16 and said she was having trouble breathing.
Deputies arrived, but Pena and Minkler allegedly told them she wasn’t home, but called them back to the house hours later.
Raymond Felix Pena, 50, the girl’s father, is arrested at the family’s home in Goshen, California, on March 1, weeks after the girl was found dead
Brett Miles Minkler, 64, the girl’s step-grandfather, was arrested at the same time
Raymond Felix Pena, 50, (right), the girl’s father, and her step-grandfather Brett Miles Minkler, 64, (left) were charged with rape, murder and child neglect resulting in death
Officers then found the girl unconscious in a bedroom at the back of the house. She was rushed to hospital but did not survive.
“Officers noted multiple indicators indicating that severe neglect may have played a role in the child’s death,” the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ashley Ritchie, of the sheriff’s office, said the girl had wounds all over her body and that her condition was a “horrific indicator” of what happened to her.
‘It was her own father who sexually abused her for months, probably longer. “Left her like an animal on the bed to die, and her own step-grandfather,” she said.
“She had a lot of health issues that went untreated for years and left her body in the state it was in.”
Pena was charged with rape, murder and child neglect resulting in death
Pena is also accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old neighbor who was a regular at the home.
Investigators later discovered a network of surveillance cameras that allegedly captured some of the girl’s “disturbing abuse.”
The images showed that the girl had not left her bed since November and that an 11-year-old girl, a neighbor, had also been repeatedly sexually abused by the two men.
“Detectives have also determined that additional girls attended Pena and Minkler’s home and are working to identify these individuals to determine if there are additional victims,” police said.
The two men were taken from the home in handcuffs on March 1 and booked into the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office Adult Pre-Trail Facility.
Police said the girl’s mother and grandmother died two years ago, just months apart.