- Oldest sister, 17, made the day-chart to keep track of 'imprisonment'
- She showed police the miniature book, which was kept around her neck
- Teen said she hadn't been allowed to see two younger siblings for 18 months
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A 17-year-old girl who was allegedly held captive with her two younger sisters in their Arizona 'house of horrors' told police how she kept a miniature calendar around her neck to count the 37 days since she last showered.
The teenager was found locked in her bedroom by police after her sisters, who also claimed to be prisoners, raised the alarm by climbing through their bedroom window and running to a neighbor's house.
The sisters told officers they were locked in their rooms all day by their step-father Fernando Richter and mother Sophia Richter and were not allowed access to each other or the outside world.
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Fernando Richter (left) and his wife Sophia Richter (right) have been charged with the imprisonment of the three girls in Tucson, Arizona
According to officers, they found the 17-year-old girl locked in her room at the midtown home, above
When police entered the house they found the oldest sister locked in her room with loud music being played.
Upon questioning the older sister told how she kept a tiny homemade calendar around her neck which helped her keep track of time.
In a police report, she said: 'I haven't seen anyone in two years. I am in my room all day, and I have not seen my sisters in a year and a half.'
She went on to tell officers that she was let out of her room once a day to go to the restroom.
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SharePointing to the calendar, she said: 'Look, I haven't showered since the 19th of September.'
After their parents were arrested on Nov 26, investigators took the sisters back to the home were they were reunited in the living room.
According to police, the girls were excited to see each other, and all three had small stuffed animals that they said they had made.
The sisters were said to have asked each other questions about what they had eaten and how they spent their time.
Squalid: A glimpse inside the filthy home turned prison that three Tucson girls aged 12, 13, and 17 say they finally escaped Tuesday after two years
'All three advised each other they listened to music and danced occasionally and would make things all day'. the police report stated.
As police walked through the home to find jackets and shoes for the girls, they reported seeing video cameras, a knife near the master bedroom door, and what appeared to be urine in bottles.
The two younger girls told officers they escaped because their stepfather was mad and was trying to get into their room. They said they feared for their lives.
Evidence: Dolls inside the home suggest that children lived in the home, but some neighbors said they had no idea that three youngsters stayed at the house
Police are still poring over a journal they say the teenager kept with a picture of Enrique Iglesias while she and her two younger sisters were allegedly imprisoned.
Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said today investigators have been combing through the diary for evidence as they build a criminal case against their parents.
He declined to reveal the diary's contents but said the teen kept one of her most prized possessions - a photo of singer Enrique Iglesias - in the journal, which was kept inside a satchel. It may have been one of the few things keeping her alive.
One of the girls kept a diary with a picture of Enrique Iglesias, above, inside
'It did contain a lot of information that I feel will be useful in helping us to determine the method and length of the imprisonment,' Villasenor said.
Investigators said the two younger girls, ages 12 and 13, escaped through the window of the bedroom they shared and alerted a neighbor on Tuesday after the stepfather tried to break down the room's door and was brandishing a knife.
Police later discovered the 17-year-old was being held separately from her sisters in another room. The three girls were malnourished and dirty and told officers they hadn't taken a bath in up to six months.
Investigators were trying to determine the last time the girls attended a school. No schools in the area had a record of them, Villasenor said, and police haven't been able to verify the mother's claims that the children were home-schooled.
The girls' accounts of being held in captivity were consistent, Villasenor said. They are now together at a group home in the custody of a state child welfare agency.
A judge set bail of $100,000 for the stepfather, Fernando Richter, and $75,000 for the mother, Sophia Richter, at their initial court appearances Wednesday.
They face multiple counts of kidnapping and child abuse, and the Fernando Richter also faces one count of sexual abuse.
The brief court appearances made by video did not include entering pleas, and it wasn't immediately clear whether the man and woman had lawyers.
The girls' maternal aunt, Chame Bueno, said outside of the court hearing that the mother had said the family was living in San Diego when they actually were in Tucson and wouldn't let her speak with her nieces on the phone.
Bueno, 34, said the stepfather was mentally abusive toward his wife.
'She always talked him up, "Oh well he pays for all my kids' clothes and he takes them here and he takes them to eat and do this" - and all that time being locked up in a room,' Bueno, of Tucson, said. 'And he hasn't done nothing she said. She has just been lying.'
Villasenor said there were motion sensors on the doors to the girls' bedrooms and video cameras trained on their bed.
If the girls needed to use the bathroom, there was an unspecified signal for them to let the parents know they needed a bathroom break.
There were locks on the girls' bedroom doors, the police chief said, but another method, which he declined to reveal, was used to keep the girls from escaping.
Search: Officers remove bags of evidence from a Tucson home where three girls claim they were locked up
Music blared loudly and constantly from the girls' bedrooms, and duct work was sealed and towels were forced against doors to prevent the sound from being heard outside, Villasenor said.
Police were investigating whether the girls had also been imprisoned in a home in Catalina, about 20 miles north of Tucson, where the family lived previously.
The mother agreed to speak with investigators but Villasenor declined to provide details of what she said. The stepfather declined to speak with investigators, according to the police chief.
Signs of violence: The girls told police they were threatened by their stepfather with a knife after he burst into a bedroom before they escaped Tuesday morning
'They were kept in filthy living conditions, separately and told patrol officers that they had no seen each other in almost two years,' said police Captain Mike Gillooly
Villasenor said police made a few prior visits to the family's home, but none pertained to the children being held in captivity.
A resident who has lived in the neighborhood for about five years told the Arizona Daily Star that she didn't know anyone was living in the home, which is set back from the street.
The woman said there was no visible activity at the house, but other neighbors had told her that they had heard what sounded like children playing inside the house at night.
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