I’m reminded of another awful, awful abuse case of a woman who kept her kids isolated at home. There was one older child who tried to run away, wanting to help save her siblings, but iirc the cops brought her back home. The mother then beat and chained her to the kitchen table for the next several years to show the other kids “This is what happens if you try to run away”.
Upstream an article was posted about kids who are sometimes isolated as a scapegoat. In the case I’m mentioning now, the mother forced the other kids to participate in the abuse, which is also sometimes a component in the scapegoat process. I wonder if that occurred here.
The child chained to the table ended up being shot by the mother. Years later the mother tried to remove the bullet so there was no evidence, and the poor girl, living much of her life in captivity, ended up dying from the infection of the home surgery. There was no anesthesia iirc. Another child ending up dying in her “care” from malnutrition after being confined to the closet.
So all the other children were scared to tell anyone and scared to run away. The mother clearly showed them what would happen to them if they did.