Woman Dubbed 'Girl In The Closet' After Years Of Abuse Arrested For Sexual Assault Of A 14-Year-Old Girl
Lauren Kavanaugh spent her childhood being abused by her mother and stepfather.
Twitter A woman who spent most of her childhood locked in a closet has been arrested for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Police received a tip on Monday that Lauren Kavanaugh, also known as the "Girl in the Closet," was in a relationship with an underaged girl. They met a few months ago through a Facebook page about Kavanaugh's story of abuse.
Kavanaugh admitted to being in a relationship with the teen girl and was charged with sexual assault of a child. She's currently behind bars in Denton, Texas on a $10,000 bond.
She also reportedly created the Facebook page they met on as a way to meet other victims of child abuse. The page has since been disabled.
Between the ages of two and eight, Kavanaugh, now 24, was kept inside a 4-by-8-foot closet in a Texas trailer owned by her mother and stepfather. Kenneth and Barbara Atkinson deprived her of food, clean water, and clothes and sexually assaulted her on a regular basis.
When she got a little older, Barbara would allow other men and women to sexually assault Lauren. She would get angry if her daughter screamed or cried during the assaults.
Kenneth would often put a gun to Lauren's head and pretend to shoot her. He would also cut her, beat her and burn her with cigarettes.
“My mom would bring home guys or girls to have sex with me," Lauren once told Dr. Phil. "If I screamed or yelled, that really made them mad. My parents thought it was hilarious for them to watch. And I had to do what they said, so I could stay alive.”
When Lauren was finally rescued in 2001, she only weighed 25 pounds. She had been sexually abused so badly that she needed surgery to recover.
She was returned to the family that had adopted her as a baby. Barbara had demanded custody after the Bill and Sabrina Kavanaugh had cared for her for two years. Lauren had said that returning to normal life hasn't been easy and that she tried to commit suicide over 30 times.
“My life’s been pretty hard. I’ve been struggling a lot. I hardly sleep anymore. My anxiety is terrible. Sometimes I have flashbacks about my past, my childhood. Sometimes when I have flashbacks, it’s of [my parents] beating me.”
Police are not revealing any more details about Lauren's arrest.
Emily is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture and true crime.