Adoptive Parents In Georgia Treated Their Child as Animal Slave

Parents accused of locking girl in chicken coop - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC:

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BUTLER, Ga. (AP) - 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.

The girl told investigators she spent up to six days at a time in the small buildings in the back of the property as punishment for such things as failing to complete her school assignments, Smith said. She said she had been put in the buildings for at least the past two years.

The outhouse was about 4 feet in length and width, and just a few feet high, Smith said.

"It was just big enough to sit in," Smith said.

The red chicken coop was much larger than the outhouse and chickens were being kept there Thursday.

The girl "might come out during the day a little bit, come in and shower," Smith said.