One of the Worst Cases': Couple Who Forced Children to Eat Own Vomit Arrested

Call the producers of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. A recent arrest in Oklahoma has unearthed a story so grisly it might make for the next season finale. The criminals' names are Laura and Aubrey Thomas, and their alleged rap sheet is terrifyingly extensive. For those who are easily disturbed, now would be a good time to stop reading. The details will follow after these photos of the two:

For those still reading, in brief, the couple are accused of:

• Beating their children with a paddle nicknamed "Mr. Awesome."
• Forcing their children to eat horse manure
• Forcing their children to eat their own vomit
• Forcing their children to perform oral sex on each other in exchange for being fed
• Forcing any child who wet the bed to sleep with their urinated-in underwear in their mouth
• Home schooling the students and coaching them to keep quiet

How bad was this? It apparently took one of the children getting institutionalized after running away before the silence was broken. For more, watch this local news report from Fox 23 Oklahoma:

The Daily Mail reports one investigator saying, "To Treat a child like that is beyond my imagination." They have likened the treatment to torture.

Local news sources go a bit more in-depth. According to Fox 23, the husband's crimes were mostly of omission, in that he did nothing to stop the abuse while his wife "instigated" it. They also reveal this nugget, which seriously calls the competence of Oklahoma's child protective services into question:

This isn't the first time the Thomas’s parenting skills have been questioned. The couple became foster parents in 1997 according to DHS. A decade ago they took in six children when they lived in Rogers County. DHS removed two of the six children from their home after finding evidence that they had been abused in 2003, but allowed the four children involved in this case to stay with the couple.

One only hopes that this revolting story has either been exaggerated, or that those responsible will face the ultimate justice.