The nosy neighbour who turned detective to uncover sickening truth about Spain’s House of Horrors where German man and his 22-stone wife kept sons locked away in filth and nappies for years

This is the neighbour-turned-detective whose ‘impressive’ and meticulous sleuthing uncovered a historic ‘house of horrors’ in Spain.

Silvia Gomez Anson spent months keeping tabs on her ‘odd’ German neighbour in the sleepy village of Toleo, nestled at the foot of a mountain in the northern region of Asturias.

On April 14, the economics professor at the University of Oviedo handed her ‘forensic level’ findings to the authorities, who were so impressed they launched an urgent investigation.

Exactly two weeks later, 15A was raided by police, unearthing a secret family living in a cesspit of filth amid ‘serious signs of child abuse and neglect’.

Silvia’s long-held suspicions were confirmed after cops found Christian Steffen, 58, was living with his 22-stone American wife Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, and their three young sons – twins aged eight, and a 10-year-old.

Reportedly due to ‘an extreme fear of Covid-19’, the family had remained confined inside the home since arriving in December 2021 – during the sixth wave of the pandemic.

Their lockdown mentality was so ingrained that when police officers arrived at the door they asked them to wear masks before entering – while their sons, who only speak English due to missing years of school in Spain – wore three face coverings each.

Police believe the children would have suffered many more years had it not been for Silvia’s scrupulous work.

Silvia Gómez Anson spent months keeping tabs on her ‘odd’ German neighbour’s house in Toleo, northern Spain, amid concerns there were children at risk being held there

Two of the children were seen being led away from the house after the police raid last month

Few in the village suspected what might have been happening behind the doors of the pink property, where German professor Christian Steffen, 53, and his American wife Melissa Ann, 48, were keeping their three young sons in a self-imposed ‘Covid lockdown’ 

It all began in August 2024, when Silvia, who lives at 15B, saw what she thought was a young girl playing in the garden next door, at 15A. She thought nothing of it at the time, believing a friend of the neighbour had been visiting with their daughter.

However, some months ago she noticed movement behind one of the blinds while the neighbour – who she assumed lived alone – was collecting a delivery from the front door.

It suddenly dawned on her that the ‘girl’ she saw last summer could be living inside the house.

Like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Silvia began spying on the property at every chance she got.

Her large windows guaranteed an unbridled view of the property next door, which was just 50ft away, while her slatted blinds kept her out of sight of the neighbour.

In a ‘forensic level’ diary, she jotted down every minor detail, including when the blinds and curtains moved and when the father took the bins out.

She kept tabs on his many deliveries of food, medicine and other goods – and crucially, the times she heard multiple children’s voices.

After months of observations, she felt compelled to act after becoming convinced that children were being kept inside the home and forbidden from leaving.

The children’s father has been named locally as German tech recruiter Christian Steffen, 53

Police in the northern city of Oviedo found the three young boys – twins aged eight and their ten-year-old brother – in the house on Wednesday

Passersby continue to walk up the driveway to take photos of the infamous ‘house of horrors’ – despite Silvia – who maintains she is not a hero – having placed a barricade in the road

The couple had moved here to enjoy the isolation – but little did they know their ‘determined’ and suspecting neighbour would begin keeping tabs on their every move

Silvia, who lived next to the Steffen family home, kept notes on her neighbour’s movements in her extremely detailed diary, which she handed over to police

Spanish police found the home in a negligent state, with hoards of rubbish, medication and animal faeces, as well as a severely unwell cat

Terrifying drawings scrawled by the children were discovered on cribs where they slept 

In her notes, she jotted down how food deliveries seemed to be for a family, not just one person.

Speaking to El Mundo, sources at Oviedo City Council compared Silvia’s notes to a professional police report, adding that it was likely she had help from someone familiar with such processes.

Silvia did such a good job that when she handed her findings in on April 14, the local police immediately began investigating – a situation that sources said was ‘unheard of’.

Investigators soon realised that only the father was registered at the address.

Adding to their concern, it appeared he had not left the home beyond walking to the gate to collect deliveries.

While monitoring the house, detectives noticed one food delivery was far too big for a single person, confirming what Silvia had found during her investigations.

But it was the large order of diapers that was said to be the smoking gun, and a raid of the property was launched on April 28. Police would later thank Silvia for her dedicated work.

One source said: ‘Without that neighbour, the children would almost certainly have gone undetected in that house for many more years.’

Local Maria Jesus, who lives higher up on the mountain, told MailOnline that she had also suspected something was wrong, but never thought to involve herself like Silvia did

The negligence occurred just a stone’s throw from a convent across the road. ‘We never saw anybody in the house and we knew nothing,’ nuns told MailOnline

The only contact the nuns have with the outside world is through the window where they sell their pastries, cakes and pies, which are popular with locals

Two nuns who live at the convent across the road told MailOnline that ‘regrettably’, they knew nothing of the tenants until reading about them in the press

When approached by MailOnline at her home today, a humble Silvia refused to comment on whether she was a hero.

‘I’m not talking about the case,’ she said.

Plain-clothed police officers later arrived at the scene, which has become somewhat of a macabre tourist attraction.

Passersby continue to walk up the driveway to take photos of the infamous ‘house of horrors’ – despite Silvia having placed a barricade at the bottom of the road.

One of the officers told MailOnline: ‘She is a bit freaked out by the attention and is not going to talk, especially because the case is still active and making its way through the courts.’

He said the Steffen parents remain behind bars but could not comment further. They face up to seven years in jail each if found guilty of domestic and psychological abuse, child abandonment – and potentially unlawful detention.

According to reports, only the father was allowed to open the front door.

When he let police in on April 28, they discovered the family were living in total squalor.

Christian and Ann Steffen are accused of imprisoning their eight-year-old twin boys and 10-year-old son in their rented villa since October 2021

There was animal excrement all over the kitchen floor and counters, while a guest bedroom had become a dumping ground for the children’s used nappies.

One guest bedroom had become a dumping ground for the children’s used nappies.

Under the parents’ bed were piles of used sanitary pads and tampons, and mounds of other filth.

According to Spanish reports, 22 jars of vaseline were also found on the mother’s bedside table. She reportedly weighed 22 stone at the time of her arrest.

The twins were kept in cribs meant for infants, with police finding disturbing drawings of monsters scrawled on them.

On the first floor, a guest room had signs of being used as a classroom for the boys, with officers finding a table, three chairs, human anatomy books and a map of the world.

Almost all the blinds of the property were closed, apart from in the children’s bedrooms, which investigators discovered were shut every day at 5.10pm.

Officers also found four oxygen-purifying ozone generators. The air purifiers, which became popular during the pandemic, were plugged in 24/7.

The Steffens had reportedly moved from Germany to the isolated village in Spain in December 2021 over fears they would lose custody of their three sons

The case has shocked Spain and rocked the local community of Toleo, which until recently, was a relatively unknown village of no more than 200 people.

Locals are said to be reeling after discovering the children’s alleged years-long suffering.

Adding salt to the wound, the litany of alleged crimes happened just a few doors down from a police captain, and opposite a convent, where dozens of locals flock daily to buy the nuns’ cookies and cakes.

Local Maria Jesus, who lives higher up on the mountain, told MailOnline that she had suspected something was wrong, but never thought to involve herself like Silvia did.

She said: ‘I once saw the mother walking down the road in a summer dress and flip flops in the middle of winter, they were not okay in the head.

‘I think it happened to a lot of people during Covid, the lockdowns and everything really affected some people.’

Maria said the village is filled with wealthy homeowners, and that a ‘chief or captain’ of the Civil Guard lives just a few doors down.

‘It’s easy to hide here, no one is going to bother you, but it was their strange behaviour that raised alarms,’ she added.

Home to no more than 200 people, the village is so tranquil and secluded that one is more likely to bump into a sheep than a human being

‘A Mercadona truck would pull into the drive and deliver far too much food for one person, so it’s no surprise the neighbour became suspicious.

‘But you can’t enter a private home without a court order, so she needed to collect evidence and give the police a reason to investigate.’

She added: ‘I’ve lived here for 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like it, it was a media circus when the news first broke.

‘It’s all anyone has been talking about. It was very shocking, but thank God she (Silvia) did something.’

Two nuns who live at the convent across the road told MailOnline that, ‘regrettably’, they knew nothing of the tenants until reading about them in the press.

One said: ‘It was horrible to read about, the press were here for days afterwards.

‘We never saw anybody in the house and we knew nothing, we assumed it was empty, the front garden is so unkept.’

The sister added: ‘People here live very independently so it’s not unusual to go unnoticed, but it was horrible to find out about it and that it was right next to us.’

Locals described the scene as ‘a media circus’ in the wake of the parents’ arrests

The only contact the nuns have with the outside world is through the window where they sell their pastries, cakes and pies.

Local Marino Guardado has lived in Toleo for 23 years in a home just above that of the Steffens.

He told the El Diario newspaper: ‘The news is a scandal. In four years I’ve never seen anyone, not a man, a woman, the children, a dog, or a cat. As far as I could see, there was no one there, and therefore, there was no activity…’

He said the grass in front of the house is very tall as if ‘no person or animal has walked on it for years.’

He said the local community is ‘tremendously angry’ for not ‘doing something for the innocent children’ sooner.

Postman Julio Luque is one of the few to have met any of the family, having made deliveries to the German father Christian.

He said: ‘The German was always at home and opened the door for me with his mask on.

‘He answered the phone, and I never thought there could be more people inside. No noise was ever heard.’

A police car is seen bringing one of the parents suspected of child neglect to the provincial Court in Oviedo, northern Spain, last Wednesday

The Steffens had reportedly moved from Germany in December 2021 over fears they would lose custody of their three sons.

According to Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, they wanted to homeschool their children, which is prohibited in the country.

Allegedly motivated by an ‘extreme fear’ of Covid-19, the parents moved to the isolated home in northern Spain two months after father Christian signed the lease in October 2021, stating he would be the only person living there.

According to property portal Idealista, the pink, 333 square metre property was built in 2002 and is worth up to €480,000.

After moving in, the Steffens were allegedly able to inflict years of child abuse and neglect against their three sons, who were forced to wear three masks each and were still using nappies.

They were also found to be suffering from extreme constipation after their toilet visits became highly controlled.

From their arrival in late 2021 and until their arrests last month, the parents almost never left the house and the boys were never seen outside the home.

When they were finally rescued on April 28, at least one of the boys is said to have fallen to their knees to touch the grass ‘in amazement’.

The self-isolation is said to have begun during the sixth wave of the pandemic, with the parents telling the boys they had serious health problems, despite no professional diagnoses from healthcare professionals

Christian is a doctor in philosophy, but was working remotely as a human resources consultant.

This allowed him to pay for the rent and constant delivery of food and medicines without anyone having to leave the home.

A CV posted online by Christian stated that he is only available to work ‘remotely’, while he described himself as having ‘strong empathy’. He also wrote that he is ‘open yet disciplined’ and has ‘perseverance and commitment.’ 

Following their arrests, investigating judge Begoña Fernandez refused to grant the couple bail and stripped them of their custody and parental rights over the three boys. The children are now under the care of the state.

Social care minister Marta del Arco previously 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 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.

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.’

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