Police: Man Imprisoned Family for 3 Years

A Georgia man allegedly imprisoned his wife and children in a filthy mobile home filled with trash and insects for more than three years, police said.

Raymond Daniel Thurmond, 36, was arrested Tuesday on charges of rape, false imprisonment and cruelty to children, said Lavonia, Ga., Police Chief Bruce Carlisle.

Thurmond was being held at the Franklin County jail and is expected to make a court appearance later today. He did not have a lawyer as of Wednesday morning.

Related

Stockholm Syndrome Driving Incest Kids?

Austrian Dungeon Dad 'Stir Crazy' in Jail

Austrian Incest Child: 'I Miss My Sister'

Carlisle said Thurmond held his wife and his four children, ages 9, 12, 13 and 14, in a mobile home filled with garbage and insects. He said the family was allowed out of the mobile home once in the past several years, to visit relatives in North Carolina, but returned after two hours.

When investigators entered the mobile home, hundreds of cockroaches fell from the ceiling, Carlisle said, adding that the home was filled with roaches, maggots and trash.

"It was probably the most deplorable, disgusting thing I've ever seen," Carlisle said.

Thurmond's wife, whose name is not being released, escaped and asked for help after Thurmond allegedly began an affair with another woman, Carlisle said.

Thurmond's wife told police she had been raped by her husband in front of her children, Carlisle said.

Carlisle said the children were malnourished and the three youngest had never attended school. He said the eldest child was pulled out of school in the second grade.

He said school records showed the children were being home-schooled, but that investigators found no evidence that the children were being taught at home.

The manager of the mobile home park told the Associated Press that she never suspected that a family was being held captive and that Thurmond said his family was out of town visiting sick relatives.