US mum, stepdad allegedly imprisoned girl for 7 years and kept her in dog cage

One evening last week, a barefoot teenage girl with a shaved head burst into her next-door neighbor's home in Blackwood, New Jersey, sat down on the couch and began to spill out a harrowing story.

- Sarah Maslin Nir

TRENTON, New Jersey — One evening last week, a barefoot teenage girl with a shaved head burst into her next-door neighbor's home in Blackwood, New Jersey, sat down on the couch and began to spill out a harrowing story.

She said her stepfather and mother had imprisoned her at their home for the past seven years, ever since they pulled her out of elementary school with the excuse that she would be homeschooled.

They locked her in a dog crate for an entire year and, at one point, had chained her up in a bathroom, she said, adding that her stepfather had sexually abused her.

This week, following a police investigation, prosecutors in Camden County, in South Jersey just outside Philadelphia, announced several charges against her mother, Brenda Spencer, 38, and stepfather, Branndon Mosely, 41.

These included assault, criminal restraint, kidnapping and weapons offences. Mosely also faces numerous counts of sexual assault.

"The investigation has corroborated the heinous acts endured by the victim, and we will hold those responsible accountable," Lieutenant Andy McNeil, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said in an interview.

The authorities did not identify the 18-year-old teenager.