2/16/12 – Bond is set at $20,000 for a Madison couple accused of starving and torturing the man’s teenage daughter. Charges are still pending in Dane County against 40-year-old Chad Chritton and his 42-year-old wife Melinda Drabek-Chritton. The daughter’s step-brother, 18-year-old Joshua Drabek, was also arrested for violating an earlier probation. The 15-year-old girl reportedly told police she was forced to live in the basement of her father’s house for over five years. And she was apparently told to eat her own feces – plus the food she could dig up on the floor, in the laundry, or in the garbage. Police said an alarm sounded when the girl tried to go upstairs with the rest of her family – and she was being home-schooled by her step-mother. And she said both her father and step-mother physically abused her. She told officers she ran away from the house last week after fearing she’d get thrown down the stairs. After arresting the parents last Friday, police said they learned from a medical expert that the girl suffered from “serial torture, with a prolonged exposure to starvation.” A man saw her outside last week wearing only pajamas – and police said she only weighed 70 pounds.
