The Horrific Abuse Of "The Girl In The Closet"

Kenneth and Barbara Atkinson's house in Hutchins, Texas, was visited by the police on June 11, 2001. They had gotten a call that eight-year-old Lauren Kavanaugh, Barbara's daughter, was being abused, but nothing could have prepared them for what they witnessed when they entered the home.

Because Kavanaugh was so small, the initial officer who arrived mistook her for a toddler.

The young girl was transported to a Dallas hospital, where doctors discovered she was the size of a typical two-year-old. Officials immediately began examining how this could have happened — and the truth was considerably worse than anyone had anticipated.

Lauren Kavanaugh had been imprisoned in a closet for six years, and the Atkinson family had only taken her out to sexually abuse and torture her. Her organs were shutting down due to malnutrition, and her lower body was red and peeling from months of squatting in her own urine and feces.

Many specialists predicted that Kavanaugh would never lead a regular life, but when she graduated from high school in 2013, she stunned everyone. Though she is still dealing with the trauma of her mother's horrible abuse and has experienced legal troubles of her own, Kavanaugh is still trying to move on from her past as "the girl in the closet."

The Birth And The Adoption Of Lauren Kavanaugh

Lauren Kavanaugh was born on April 12, 1993, but her mother, Barbara, had already decided to give her up for adoption. Sabrina Kavanaugh, the woman who hoped to raise Lauren, was in the delivery room, and she later recalled to The Dallas Morning News how excited she and her husband were to welcome the baby into their home.

“That was the happiest day of our lives,” Sabrina said. “We loved her before she was born, I guess you would say. We had a room for her and her little clothes. It was awesome.”

Sabrina had been introduced to 21-year-old Barbara several months earlier, soon after she’d discovered she was pregnant. They met several times before Lauren's birth to discuss the adoption logistics. Sabrina recalled, "she was determined she wanted to give it up." "She had no idea who the father was."

Sabrina and her husband Bill raised Lauren as if she were their own for the next eight months. However, they were notified one day that Barbara had filed a petition for custody of the child.

In 1995, Judge Lynn E. Markham awarded the Atkinsons permanent custody of Lauren. For the next six years, the little girl would face unimaginable abuse.

The Abuse Of “The Girl In The Closet”

According to medical report, Lauren Kavanaugh stopped growing around the age of two — the age she was when she was returned to her biological mother.

In reality, Lauren Kavanaugh was locked in her mother’s closet, surviving on cold soup, crackers, and tubs of butter that her older sister sometimes sneaked in to her. On the rare occasions she was allowed to leave the closet, she endured even worse torture than the loneliness she faced inside.

Starting from when she was a toddler, Both Kenneth and Barbara Atkinson sexually abused the child.

When the Atkinsons weren’t raping Lauren themselves, they rented her out to pedophiles.

She'd also put a bowl of macaroni and cheese in front of the child and instruct her, "Chew it, but don't swallow." Lauren was the only kid who was consistently denied food and confined up, despite the fact that Kenneth and Barbara had five other children who were subjected to various sorts of abuse.

"I never loved Lauren," Barbara subsequently told Child Protective Services. I never wanted her. When my other children suffer, I suffer as well. "I felt nothing when Lauren was in pain."

The Rescue

After six years of constant abuse, Kenneth Atkinson decided to tell someone about Lauren. Whether it was due to a sudden change of heart or a vicious act of revenge after he found out Barbara was cheating on him is unclear, but in June 2001, Lauren’s long life of solitary confinement finally came to an end.

Lauren was having difficulty adjusting to her new life. She wasn't toilet trained, didn't know how to use a fork or a spoon, and she guarded her food with her life because she was frightened someone would take it from her. She cried the first time she stepped outdoors barefoot that bugs were biting her feet because she'd never felt grass before.

Lauren's life has been difficult since then. According to CBS News, she battles with her mental health, was raped by her cousin's husband when she was 12, and was jailed in 2018 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl herself. She was determined incompetent to face trial and was confined to a mental health facility.

Meanwhile, Kenneth and Barbara Atkinson are both spending life in prison for felony injury to a child