Two women say they escaped a compound in rural Florida where they were sexually abused and forced into hard labor by a couple preparing for Armageddon.
The alleged captors of the women, 58-year-old Mirko Ceska and 55-year-old Regina Ceska, of Wakulla County, Florida, located about 20 miles outside Tallahassee, were arrested on a number of charges.
Although the victims were not identified, the couple reportedly adopted a pair of 12-year-old twin girls more than a decade ago who would now be in their early 20s. Police didn’t confirm the escapees were the twins, but said the Ceskas “exercised custodial responsibility” over the women.
After escaping, the two told police a harrowing story about their life with the Ceskas. They said they were forced to wake up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to perform hard labor on the farm. The women said they weren’t allowed to have friends, go anywhere, or speak to anybody in public, and if they didn’t smile, they were beaten or starved.
“The females described Mr. and Mrs. Ceska as doomsday preppers who had getaway properties located throughout the United States and food rations and weapons stored in the event of a major calamity,” a statement from the sheriff’s office reads. “The females stated they had been trained to raise pigs, raise sheep, grow various fruits and vegetables, sheer sheep, utilize a loom, and sew.”
Both women reportedly said that Mirko Ceska forced them to perform sex acts, at times with Regina Ceska’s support. They were also physically abused, most recently being beaten with a metal rod.
Authorities raided the couple’s home on Friday and arrested the couple. Mirko Ceska was charged with sexual battery, sexual assault, abuse, and neglect, and Regina Ceska was charged with two counts each of neglect and failure to report abuse. While searching the home, detectives found fake walls, large amounts of food, and “dozens of high quality firearms and many cases of ammunition.”
Investigators said they recovered a homemade video showing Mirko Ceska “screaming that they had stolen food.” After a search warrant was executed on Mirko Ceska’s phone, “A file containing an internet search history for an incestuous video was located.”
The couple attended a 2009 event with then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist celebrating adoption. While there, the two took the opportunity to speak about overmedication in foster homes.
According to an Associated Press report from the time, the Ceskas claimed the 12-year-old twins they had adopted the year before were on 11 different medications when they came into their custody.
“Their behavior was absolutely terrible and you could almost not control them,” Regina Ceska said, noting that they took the children off all medications.
“The foster people that are taking care of these kids, many of them that we have seen don’t want these kids to have too much to do,” Mirko Ceska said. “So they really put them asleep. They really do.”
The Ceskas were booked into Wakulla County Jail after the Friday raid on their home. It remains unclear if either has an attorney or how the two women managed to escape the compound.
