“You’re more than welcome to eat,” the officer tells her. “Eat all you want, sweetie. That’s all you.”
After being encouraged by the officer, the video shows E. helping herself to some of the pizza. In a later clip time-stamped at around 3:30 p.m. Aug. 30, about four hours after authorities initially found her, a woman EMT is seen in the closet and chats softly with the child, who appears to respond to her in redacted portions of the audio.
“We helped your brother,” the EMT reassures E. “We want to get you some help too.”
Finally, the young girl stands and walks out of the closet.
The scene unfolded shortly after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped and ran to a neighbor’s home for help—prompting her and Hildebrandt’s arrest. In a case summary, the Washington County Attorney’s Office says that Franke and Hildebrandt held the two aforementioned children in a “work camp like setting.”
“The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment,” the summary reads, also describing physical abuse in graphic detail. “The children suffered emotional abuse to the extent that they came to believe that they deserved the abuse.”
