BUTLER, Ga. – A Georgia girl told investigators she spent days at a time locked inside a small outhouse and a chicken coop, and had to wear a shock collar because she didn’t do her school work, authorities said Thursday.
The 15-year-old girl’s parents, Samuel and Diana Franklin, were arrested earlier this week on multiple counts of child cruelty and false imprisonment. They were released on bond, and declined to comment as they left the courthouse Thursday for what appeared to be a custody hearing.
“I’ve never seen anything like this personally,” said Special Agent Wayne Smith of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “If the allegations prove to be true, it’s a very severe case.”
The girl was adopted around 2007 and home-schooled in a house outside the small town of Butler, about 85 miles south of Atlanta, according to Smith. The Franklins live on a rural stretch of road sprinkled with a few homes and cow pastures.
The house is surrounded by a split-rail fence with prominent “no trespassing” signs at the entrance of the driveway.