Police in Spain have arrested a German couple after they made a disturbing discovery at their home. Police began investigating the unidentified couple after a neighbor expressed concern about the home authorities later described as a “house of horrors.” The parents allegedly held the children captive in the home for more than three years following the last big outbreak of COVID-19. When police got to the home, everything seemed OK, but they soon realized that wasn’t the case.
The investigation reportedly began on April 14, 2025, when a neighbor complained that children lived in the home but didn’t attend school. When police spoke to the parents, they realized something was seriously wrong. According to local news outlets including El Mundo, per People, officers from the Oviedo Police Department went to the unidentified family’s home on April 28. They found a 53-year-old German man, his 48-year-old American wife, 8-year-old twins, and a 10-year-old.
According to El Comercio and El Mundo, the father only left the home to pick up groceries and his wife and children never left, People reported. When police went to the home, the man reportedly allowed them inside but was cautious. The parents allegedly put multiple masks on the children and the mother told officers to be careful because the kids were “very sick,” according to El Mundo.
Inside, police said they found a home littered with trash and feces and a large number of masks and medication. Chief Javier Lozano reportedly called the home a “house of horrors.” The children slept in cribs but did not appear to be ill. Instead, police noticed they seemed “dirty” from living in the home.
“The children were in terrible shape. It was absolutely outrageous,” one officer reportedly told El Mundo. “Not malnourished, because they were fed. But they were also dirty … [and] completely cut off from reality, and not just because they didn’t go to school. When we took them out of the house, into the garden, where they wouldn’t even go outside, they saw a snail and went crazy, freaked out.”
“We’ve all been affected by Covid syndrome and what the pandemic has brought, and we can speculate about what led a family to live locked up for so long,” Lozano said during a news conference.
Police arrested the parents, who face charges of domestic violence with habitual psychological abuse and child abandonment. The children were taken to a hospital for evaluation and placed in protective custody.
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.
