Florida "Torture" Couple Caught In Utah

INVERNESS, Fla.- A Florida couple accused of torturing and starving five adopted children - including pulling out their toenails and subjecting them to electric shocks - were captured Friday in southeastern Utah after police tracked them through their cell phones, officials said. John and Linda Dollar were picked up by two deputies around 7:30 p.m. EST south of Blanding in southeastern Utah, according to the San Juan County (Utah) Sheriff's Department. They were being held in county jail on Florida warrants of felony aggravated child abuse. The couple were easily tracked because they continued using their cell phones in Utah, Citrus County sheriff's Capt. Jim Cernich said. The Dollar family included seven adopted children between the ages of 12 and 17. Five of the children have told investigators they were tortured by the couple, subjected to electric shocks, beatings with hammers and having their toenails yanked out with pliers. Deputies who raided their central Florida home Friday found an electric cattle prod, sticks, belts and a vise that were allegedly used in the torture, Cernich said. Authorities said the abused five had physical injuries supporting their claims and were so severely malnourished that they weighed no more than elementary school children. "They looked like the photos that we've seen of Auschwitz," said Citrus sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney, describing 14-year-old twins, one weighing 36 pounds, the other 38 pounds.



(Local 6 article here)