MARGATE, Fla. – Another family member is set to face charges in a months-long investigation into years of torture police say a 15-year-old girl suffered inside of a Margate home — authorities just have to find her first.
Margate police say they’re looking for the victim’s 22-year-old cousin, Denaria Aaliyah Graham, who, once they find her, will become the fifth member of her family to be directly implicated in the abuse case and the sixth arrested overall.
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Authorities filed an arrest warrant in Broward County court in December detailing Graham’s charges and alleged participation in the abuse.
The case came to light in October following the arrest of the girl’s aunt and uncle, her legal guardians.
That came, police said, after the 15-year-old asked her online instructor to send police to her home on Northwest 79th Terrace, where Latricia Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Lockett, 43, had been caging and abusing her for years.
The couple is accused of, individually or jointly, forcing the girl to kneel on rice for hours at a time, throwing boiling water on her, striking her toes with a hammer and binding her with rope. Police said Crawley “would often pour cold water on (her) while she slept, just to see her wake up.”
The two are also accused of caging the girl in two separate closets, forcing her to urinate and defecate in a bucket.
According to the newly-obtained arrest warrant, one of those closets was in Graham’s room. Graham was aware of the abuse, police said, and was tasked with watching the girl when no other adults were around.
Police said she participated in the caging and would only let the girl out of the closet to defecate.
Two other relatives are accused of participating in or being aware of the abuse.
The girl’s 20-year-old sister, Shankyria Clayton, is accused of being aware of the abuse and not reporting it — and joining her aunt, uncle and cousin in caging and starving her sister.
Another cousin, Treaunshae Gibbons, 29, is accused of being aware of the abuse and not reporting it, despite working for a child abuse nonprofit at the time. In fact, she used her knowledge of the system in order to help Crawley deal with police, acting as a “middleman,” authorities allege.
All the while, a sex offender had been living at the home, according to police. Seventy-four-year-old relative Horace Crawley was arrested in November for failing to comply with registration requirements.
Horace Crawley has not been charged in connection with the abuse case, though, following his arrest, police didn’t rule out the possibility.
All family members charged in the abuse case are facing various felonies.
Graham, upon her arrest, is set to face charges of aggravated child abuse, child neglect causing great bodily harm and failure to report child abuse.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call Margate police or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.