A couple who once lived in Lynnwood have been arrested in New Mexico for allegedly handcuffing and starving at least two of their children for days at a time, according to court papers.
Matthew Hepple, 39, and Sarah Burton Hepple, 32, were arrested last week for investigation of multiple charges of child abuse, false imprisonment and conspiracy, New Mexico court papers said.
“This is probably one of the worse cases I’ve ever seen,” Valencia County Sheriff’s Lt. James Purdy said. “It’s pretty bad what those kids had to go through.”
Two of the couple’s six children, a girl, 13, and her brother, 9, told police they were tied up and handcuffed for several days, the papers said. They were given scant amounts of food and at times not taken to use the bathroom.
Sarah Burton Hepple originally is from Edmonds, her sister Lora Seilhymer said. She was living in Lynnwood with her six children until about June 2006 when she and Matthew Hepple apparently moved to New Mexico.
Matthew Hepple, who was convicted of felony rape of a child in the first degree, was accused in King County in December 2005 of failing to register as a sex offender.
The man had registered his address as a motel on Aurora Avenue N. in Seattle, but he apparently wasn’t living there, according to court papers. Police believed he was spending time with Sarah Burton Hepple and her children in Lynnwood.
In June 2006, he was acquitted of the charges. That’s when the family moved out of state, Seilhymer said.
Last month, the 13-year-old girl ran away, according to the New Mexico court papers. She went to a movie theater and begged for food. For a month, she refused to tell authorities her real name, fearing that she’d be returned to her home.
The girl finally told authorities the details of the alleged abuse she and her brother survived, the papers said.
Police searched the home where the child had been living and found evidence supporting her story, but the family apparently had moved shortly after the girl ran away, Purdy said.
The couple was arrested last week. The children now are living in foster homes.
The Hepples denied hurting any of their children, the papers said. They remain jailed on $100,000 bail.
Seilhymer said she is concerned for the welfare of her nieces and nephews.
Now, she said she believes her sister and her partner might face the punishment.
“I’m hoping, at the very least, they stay in jail for a very long time,” Seilhymer said.
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