A potentially horrific case of the kidnapping and enslavement of a mentally disabled woman and her six-year-old daughter is now coming to light in Ohio, shocking those in the Cleveland area. The suspects in the case, however, are maintaining their innocence.

The case first came to light after the woman, known only as S.E., was caught stealing a candy bar. Rather than ask for forgiveness, she asked to be taken to jail, and it was then that the investigating police officer realized something was amiss.

At that point the officer went to the woman's apartment, where one of the suspects claimed that the woman was guilty of child abuse. Sensing that something was amiss with the story, the police department worked with the FBI to launch a full-scale investigation, and what they found was almost beyond belief.

"The victim in this case is slowly recovering," U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach said. "They treated her with such cruelty that it is hard to comprehend. They tried to take away her human dignity."

An FBI agent's affidavit detailed some of the claims made against the three suspects: Jordie L. Callahan, 26, Jessica L. Hunt, 31, and Daniel J. Brown, 33. Both the woman, who is mentally handicapped, and her daughter were allegedly forced to live a life of servitude to the three suspects.

Among the allegations, the agent claims that the suspects forced the two victims to perform the vast majority of the household chores while living in miserable conditions. Sometimes they would go whole days without eating and would be threatened with guns and venomous snakes if they dissented.

"There was never any forced labor, any forced co-habitation. She was never forced to do anything. She used this story to get out of trouble she was in" with regard to a child-abuse allegation, said Callahan's lawyer Andrew Hyde.

The FBI and the police department seem fairly confident in the charges they are now levying against the three suspects, however. They claim that Callahan forced the woman to beat her child and took pictures specifically to use as evidence against her should the need ever arise.

"I think the feds just failed to fully investigate this before they jumped to some conclusions," Hyde said.

Callahan and Hunt also had four children together, all of whom lived in the apartment with them. The disabled woman and her daughter are alleged to have been forced to sleep on the floor or in a padlocked room. Despite the extreme circumstances in which they lived, authorities claim that the two are doing "relatively well."

"These individuals preyed upon a human being with a disability," Dettelbach said at a news conference. "They treated her worse than the animals in that house."