More than a month after an 18-year-old escaped from her allegedly abusive mother and stepfather, those who knew the couple are speaking out. Police arrested 38-year-old Brenda Spencer and the teen’s stepfather, 41-year-old Branndon Mosley, of Gloucester Township, New Jersey, in May. Prosecutors charged them with multiple felonies, including kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated assault, criminal restraint, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Neighbor Michael Lacey told NJ.com that the story shocked him. Lacey said the night the girl appeared at his home next door, she told a horrific story of abuse that seemed unbelievable. When she finally showed him marks on her arms from where Mosley allegedly handcuffed her behind her back, the 36-year-old began to believe her.
He said she spoke and acted erratically and laughed at strange parts of her story as she talked about physical and sexual abuse.
“Picture someone coming to you, not knowing anything about the world and asking a million questions,” Lacey shared with the news outlet. “That’s exactly what she was doing. Exactly.”
Breaking:Gloucester Township couple charged for confining and abusing child.Prosecutors say girl held captive inside a dog cage and chained inside the bathroom for years. The now 18 year old escaped last week. Brenda Spencer and
— Chris O'Connell (@CoconnellFox29) May 14, 2025
Branndon Mosley is also a SEPTA train engineer. pic.twitter.com/5vkn9kZYZD
Sadly, if Mosley did sexually abuse the girl, who claimed her mother pulled her from school in 2019, he wasn’t her first abuser. In February 2018 she stood in front of her biological father, Lawrence W. Young, in a Camden County courtroom, giving an impact statement. Her father was being sentenced after pleading guilty to a sexual assault charge.
“I’ve come here to let you know that you ruined my life,” the girl said. “I was only 7 years old when you took away my childhood.
“I need therapy and to see special doctors after what you did to me,” the then-11-year-old girl said in the audio obtained by NJ.com. “You kept telling me this would be the last, last time, but it never would.”
At the hearing, the girl named her mother, Mosley, and her sister and said she looked forward to the future. Just 18 months later, her mother reportedly pulled her from school and began homeschooling.
“Homeschooling may be the right choice for many families,” Camden County Prosecutor Grace MacAulay said at a May 14, 2025, news conference. “Unfortunately, it can be used by others as a means to hide abuse.”
Spencer’s brother, Brandon Spencer, told NJ.com he believes his sister and Mosley are guilty as charged. “I’m not with her,” Brandon Spencer said. “I feel that she should hang in public.”
He said the accused “both deserve what they’re gonna get.”
Lacey told NJ.com he contacted police the night the teen showed up at his house, but authorities reportedly said because of her age, they couldn’t help her. She slept in a car in the driveway the night of her escape, and he took her with him to work the next day.
He finally took her to a hospital later that day, and his emotions got the best of him.
“I just started bawling my eyes out,” Lacey said. “I was like, ‘This girl’s been through so much.'”
Lt. Andrew McNeil, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, told NJ.com that the teen and her sister “are in safe locations at the time being” but declined to provide more details.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
