DEMING, N.M. (KRQE) – KRQE News 13 is learning more about one of the most horrific cases of child abuse in New Mexico. Police have revealed the terrible conditions in which eight children were forced to live in underground tunnels.
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Police were in disbelief as they investigated reports of child abuse at the property of Melvin and Valerie Cordell in Deming last year. Body camera footage showed mounds of trash piled up throughout the property, with officers struggling to find a clear path.
Multiple trailers were in bad condition, one of which had a missing roof and was filled with rotten food. Human feces were scattered in buckets around the area. Authorities reported that eight children lived there, some forced to sleep in broken-down cars on the property.
Officers then discovered underground tunnels and caves, four to five feet tall, where some of the children were kept. A New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department investigator noted that the state had been to the property before, yet the children remained there. They were finally removed from the property in October after their 16-year-old daughter revealed she had been abused. She claimed that her parents forced her and her younger siblings to perform sexual acts in front of adults for the past decade. She also stated that she had become pregnant twice, at ages 13 and 16.
Melvin and Valerie Cordell have both pleaded not guilty. Melvin faces 24 charges, including child abuse, criminal sexual penetration, and other offenses. Valeria is facing several similar charges of child abuse.
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