Fifth person jailed in years-long Broward teen abuse case. She worked with distressed kids
A family support counselor is the fifth person arrested in connection to the case of a 15-year-old girl who police say suffered close to a decade of abuse at a Margate house of horrors.
Treaunshae Gibbons, 29, was charged Thursday with child neglect and failure to report child abuse. Gibbons, who worked for the nonprofit Kids in Distress, served as a “middleman” between investigators and the girl’s guardians, police say.
The teen’s guardians, Latricia Elizabeth Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett, 43; and the girl’s 20-year-old sister, Shankyria Latricia Clayton, were previously arrested on child abuse charges. Also arrested at the home was relative Horace Crawley, a 74-year-old sex offender, charged with failing to register as a sex offender.
Gibbons, who is also the teen girl’s cousin, resided at the Margate home from 2015 to 2019. In a recorded phone call, Gibbons coached Latricia Crawley on how she should interact with investigators, court records say.
READ MORE: Broward teen suffered in house of horrors for years, police say. Guardians now charged
She was fired from her job after violating policy related to “abuse reporting,” court documents say, though it’s unclear when.
“[Gibbons] position provided ample opportunity to make a reasonable effort to protect the child victim,” police said in a probable cause affidavit.
What happened at the home?
When Margate police responded to the home in October, they found the 15-year-old girl’s head bleeding. Lockett, police say, punched the girl, causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk.
While being treated at a nearby hospital, police noticed “evidence of significant long-term trauma” on the girl’s body, according to a report. She had ligature marks, bruises, scar tissue, bite marks from insects and apparent signs of malnutrition.
The girl detailed to investigators the horror she suffered since 2014, when Latricia Crawley and Lockett became her guardians, according to the report.
For almost 10 years, they frequently locked her in a closet, sometimes binding her with zip ties. They would force her to sleep there and relieve herself in a bucket. Crawley, according to the teen, would often pour cold water on her to see her wake up. Both Crawley and Lockett, she said, starved her. Police even reported that the girl’s bones were protruding around her spine.
But police say she broke down as she described one of her gruesome punishments: when her eyes would be taped shut as her head would be dunked into water. The alleged abuse didn’t stop there. Here’s what else the girl told investigators:
▪ In 2019, when she was 11, Lockett kicked her in the chin, leaving her with a permanent scar that’s still visible today.
▪ In 2021, when she was 13, Crawley oiled her knees and forced her to kneel on rice for several days. She still has scar tissue on her knees.
▪ Again in 2021, Crawley tied the girl down and smashed her toes with a hammer.
▪ In 2022, when she was 14, the couple bound the girl with a nylon rope on multiple occasions, permanently disfiguring her shoulders, wrists and stomach
▪ Again in 2022, Crawley poured a pot of boiling water over the girl, causing visible scars on her stomach.
