Pictured: Tech recruitment father ‘who kept his three children locked up inside House of Horrors for four years because of his fear of Covid’ – as cops reveal heartbreaking first act by boys after their rescue

Three young boys who were allegedly locked inside their home for four years by their Covid-obsessed parents began hyperventilating and threw themselves onto the lawn to stroke the grass after being rescued by police, it has emerged.

Police found the boys, between the ages of eight and ten, in a house in the northern city of Oviedo, Spain on Wednesday. The children had apparently been kept in the residence since 2021.

It is understood the family closed off to the world during the Covid-19 pandemic, forbidding the children from going outside, and making them sleep in caged beds.

The interior of the house was littered with hoards of rubbish and mountains of accumulated medicines, Spanish police said. Surfaces were covered in filthy pet excrement and the family also had a cat with a massive tumour.

The children, two eight-year-old twin boys and their ten-year-old brother, were reportedly wearing nappies when police found them.

Investigators were concerned the children seemed unsteady as they walked outside for the first time in years – almost half the length of their lives.

‘When we took them out of the house, into the garden, where they didn’t even want to go outside, they saw a snail and went crazy,’ one officer told El Mundo. ‘They were scared.’ 

The parents, Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, who has German-American citizenship and Christian Steffen, a 53-year-old German tech recruiter, were ultimately arrested and the children placed in care. 

Christian Steffen, a German philosopher, was arrested along with his wife for allegedly keeping his children inside for several years

Terrifying drawings by the children on a caged bed. The children were aged 8 to 10

Two of the children are lead from the house in Spain after police intervened on Wednesday

Officers visited the property on Monday, during the Spanish blackouts, and were horrified by the conditions the children were living in, DW reports. 

Officers said the children did not appear sick, but were ‘dirty’. ‘The children were in a deplorable state,’ one told El Mundo.

‘They weren’t malnourished, because they were fed. But they were also dirty and completely disconnected from reality…’ 

A source close to the ongoing investigation said: ‘They had a timetable and a maximum number of times a day they could use the toilet because the rest of the time they had to wear nappies.’

A shocking paediatric report identifying their ‘severe constipation’ flagged up faeces in their intestines because of the long wait they endured between relieving themselves, El Espanol reported.

An unnamed investigator told the respected Spanish news website: ‘The children’s parents claimed the youngsters didn’t know how to control their bowel movements but the paediatric report has shown that to be false.’

Although police described the house as filthy and dirty nappies were piled up in one of the bathrooms and used tampons found under the parents’ double bed, Christian and his German passport holder wife were said to have been using half a dozen air purifier machines they kept in their bedroom. 

Authorities had previously received a tip from a neighbour, who raised concerns they had never seen the children go to school, DW reports. 

Police became suspicious when they noticed that only one man was registered as living in the house – but his supermarket orders were enough for several people.

‘At first, there was nothing particularly striking,’ Chief Inspector Francisco Javier Lozano said of their call to the house on Monday. 

But the parents started behaving strangely when they asked to come in.

Spanish police said the house was in a disgusting state, with hoards of rubbish and mountains of accumulated medicines. A bathroom appeared to be used for a sick cat

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The bespectacled, bearded man identified as their father described himself on LinkedIn as a former philosophy student with a doctorate from Hamburg University who was currently working as a freelance senior tech recruiter and HR manager. 

‘He was disheveled, barefoot. He asked us to wear masks and keep our distance,’ one officer told El Espanol. 

‘He immediately said there were minors in the house. But to our surprise, not only did that happen, but neither parent denied that they had been isolated for years, nor did they show any special knowledge of having done anything wrong.’ 

When they were allegedly allowed to enter the property, they noted that the parents put ‘up to three masks on the children’ before letting them in, El Mundo reports.

The mother told the officers to be careful as her children were very sick.

The three young boys were freed having apparently lived solely inside the house since December 2021, at the height of the pandemic.

An investigating source said the parents bought medication containing THC, the main psychoactive element in cannabis, on the black market and gave it to the children as treatment for ADHD.

The minors were barefoot, wearing diapers and still sleeping in cribs. When they wanted to take them out of the building, they did not even have shoes of their size, since they had not been bought shoes for years. 

The motivation of the parents for keeping the children locked in their own home is not yet known.

Investigators speaking to El Comercio suggested that the parents suffered from ‘Covid syndrome’ and lived in fear of the virus.

The German-American mother, 48, reportedly told police that she and her German husband, reportedly a philosopher from Hamburg, thought it was the best way to keep them safe.

Inside the house, police found a large supply of ADHD medicine and face masks.

The children were kept out of school and forbidden from leaving the house.

Doors were locked and the windows were permanently closed. The children were not even allowed to go into the garden.

El Mundo, citing local testimonies, said the father always went to the gate of the property wearing a mask, both to pick up takeaway deliveries and mail. 

Police said when the children were freed, one of them knelt on the grass and ‘touched it with amazement’.

‘We have given three children back their lives,’ said Lozano after the raid. 

A German couple who had been living cut off from the world kept their children sequestered for more than three years in Spain 

Spanish police said the house was in a disgusting state, with hoards of rubbish and mountains of accumulated medicines

Over the years, the children were kept so hidden that even neighbours did not realise they were in the house.

The husband and wife duo are now being held in custody without bail pending further investigations following the discovery of the children.

The operation and investigation into the children began on April 14 after a resident of the area raised the alarm. 

The woman had heard voices that sounded like children coming from the house although she had never seen anyone leave the home to play or go to school.

The blinds were always closed and there was no clear sign of life, neighbours said. 

‘Honestly, I don’t remember knowing it was inhabited. The blinds were always down, no noise, no cars. Nothing to indicate life,’ said Rafael Ruiz, who lived opposite. 

But, after several days of surveillance, investigators were clear that more than one person had to live there.

They saw movement through the few windows that were not closed, and assessed somebody must be inside from the number of boxes of food orders that the man brought into the home. 

The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier Lozano, gave a press conference on Wednesday in which he explained the details of the operation that saw the arrest of the couple at 2.45pm on Monday. 

The initial search of the house was made more difficult because Spain had been plunged into darkness by an electricity outrage.

When police knocked on the front door, the father answered but asked the officers to wait for a few minutes so the children could put their masks on.

One officer told the Spanish press: ‘They were very scared and around the mother, who told us all the time that the little ones had serious pathologies and that we should not approach them. 

‘They had three masks each on top of each other. They were oblivious to any contact with reality.’

At the moment, the reasons that led this family to live in captivity since 2021 and in unsanitary conditions inside the Asturian villa are unknown.

The children spoke mostly in English. After being evaluated at the Central University Hospital of Asturias, they have been placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality.

It is not ruled out that their parents will be charged with crimes of habitual abuse, abandonment of minors, and against fundamental rights.

At the moment, the reasons that led this family to live in captivity since 2021 and in unsanitary conditions inside the Asturian villa are unknown

As a summary of the operation, the chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier López Lozano said: ‘We have dismantled the house of horrors’. 

Social care minister Marta del Arco told El Comercio that the evaluation of the boys shows they are ‘doing okay physically’, however the psychological assessment is yet to be completed.

Flor Gonzalez Muñiz, spokesperson for the Professional Association of Social Education of the Principality of Asturias, added that the parents repeatedly told the youngsters the outside world was ‘harmful’ to them.

The expert has been closely monitoring the case since it first came onto the authorities’ radar on April 14.

She said the parents began the self-isolation during the sixth wave of the pandemic and told the boys they had serious health problems, stocking up on a variety of medications to give them, despite no professional diagnoses from healthcare professionals.

This included making them wear masks, up to three at a time.

Since being freed, according to Muñiz, the two youngest – twins aged eight – are adapting well to living without masks, however the eldest brother, aged 10, is a little more ‘reticent’.

She said: ‘The little ones took them off and were free, but the older one eats and puts it back on…

‘It’s not so easy to break down the discourse they’ve received for so long from their parents… children are less aware of the risk the younger they are… so it’s normal that the eldest needs to check more than the other two that nothing (untoward) is happening and to gain trust.’

The expert said the damage caused to the trio is ‘very serious’ but ‘not irreversible’.

She believes the fact there are three of them will help the brothers ‘become a close group.’

She added: ‘They have an opportunity right now; childhood has that flexibility: If you work correctly, even if there may be after-effects, because this is something they will carry with them forever, they will be able to reach adulthood with the guarantee of a full life…

‘Now, we must begin therapeutic work from the socio-educational perspective, on a daily basis, to normalise such basic things as toilet training (they wore diapers), grooming and hygiene, going outside, socialising, and also seeking the progressive development of their autonomy.’

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