The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that they’ve located Maarib Al Hishmawi, the missing Taft High School student, and arrested her parents, charging them with abuse.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar says that Hishmawi was subjected to physical abuse, including having hot oil thrown on her, beatings with a broomsticks, and choking, because she was resisting an arranged marriage that her parents had set up that would’ve paid them “approximately $20,000.” He added that the abuse only stopped when she verbally agreed to the marriage.
The sheriff noted that she ran away before the marriage was able to take place.
When she was found “in mid-March,” the sheriff says that she was not released to her parents but placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. He noted that her five other siblings, that range between the ages of 5 and 15 years old, are also in CPS custody and they don’t know if the other children have been subjects of abuse as well.
Sheriff Salazar says that the parents are now facing a charge of continuous family violence but other charges could be added later.