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How a malnourished teen escaped a house full of chains and freed her 12 siblings

Neighbors rarely saw the 13 siblings who lived inside the home in Southern California, because they never went outside to play. Instead, authorities said, they were held captive in a dirty and foul-smelling house, some of them shackled to the furniture with chains and padlocks.

Before dawn Sunday, a 17-year-old girl escaped from the Perris home, slipping through a window and dialing 911 on a deactivated cellphone, Capt. Greg Fellows with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday at a news conference. Per federal law, cellphones — even those that are no longer functional — must be able to call emergency services.