Virginia Lujan, 55, and Jami Hodges, 33, both admitted that the girl was kept in the ‘cage’ to keep control of her, police said. A grandmother and mother in Arizona are accused of child abuse in the death of a 13-year-old special needs girl after they allegedly disciplined the teen by beating her and keeping her in a feces-covered cage.
Virginia Lujan, 55, was taken into custody and charged with one count of child abuse following the death of her granddaughter earlier this week, according to the Tempe Police Department. Police responded to Lujan’s home around 9 p.m. on Tuesday after the grandmother called 911 to report that her granddaughter was not breathing. First responders found the teenager, who had the mental capacity of a toddler, “covered in bruises and sores” that were “in various stages of healing,” police said.
She was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead on Wednesday morning. Lujan, who was caring for the teen at the time of her death, told investigators that she had fallen down the stairs two days earlier, police said in a news release.
“She said she did not seek medical attention because she believed the girl would be fine,” police said of the girl who had a “cognitive delay and had the mental capacity of a three-year-old.”. When detectives searched the home after obtaining a warrant, they found “what appeared to be a makeshift cage, which was full of feces and had a foul odor.” Both Lujan and Hodges admitted that the “girl was kept in this ‘cage’ to keep control of her,” police said.
