On July 1st two female escapees of an alleged Doomsday prepper cult walked through the doors of the local Wakulla County Sheriff's Office in Florida to report their captors. They identified their adoptive parents, 58 year old Mirko Ceska and his wife, 55 year old Regina Ceska, as their abusers and went on to describe the conditions they had been living under for the past decade. They told officers that they had run away a couple of days earlier, before finally deciding to report the couple. Regina Ceska is employed by a nursing center called “Consulate Health Care of Tallahassee”- a for-profit nursing home that is rated poorly online. In Ceska’s most recent court appearance it was stated that she is still employed by the company.
The victims, now both 22 years old, are twins who were adopted by their abusers in the late 2000’s when they were just 11 years old; but instead of being raised with love in a caring environment, as children should be, they were put to work for the survivalist couples own agenda.
The young women, who have not yet been identified in the media, told officers they had been kept on a farm located on 251 Lonnie Raker Lane, near the county of Crawfordville for the past 10 years, where they were forced to labor and were regularly assaulted by their father. Lonnie Raker Lane is around 6 or 7 miles from the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office, depending on the route, and would it take an average of 15 minutes to reach by car or over 2 hours on foot.
The young women described how each day they were forced to wake up at 5:30AM to labor on the farm, raising and tending to livestock, such as sheep and pigs, as well as growing vegetables.
They were also made to stitch and sew garments and produce textiles on an old fashioned loom, presumably using wool from the sheep they raised, to make clothing and perhaps tapestries and other fabrics. It is believed that the fruits of their daily labors were being used to stockpile survivalist supplies across various bunkers for a coming Armageddon or disaster. Mirko and Regina Ceska lived on a property fully stocked with guns, ammunition, food, clothing and all nature of survival goods. According to various articles online, they had several Doomsday bunkers across the United States, all fully stocked with produce. The main home they resided in had false walls installed, behind which were more firearms and ammo.
Neighbors in the surrounding area claimed to have no idea that the married couple even had children, as they rarely, if ever, saw the girls around. When asked to describe Mirko and Regina they simply commented that the pair was cold and disinterested and rarely interacted with others in the immediate community. In interviews with WCTV, neighbors expressed their shock and concern that crimes were being committed in such close proximity to them. “There’s always the possibility of danger, even when its right next door and you don’t even notice.”
“He would come out to the gate to meet people” said one neighbor of Mirko Ceska. “I suppose it was a sign but I guess nobody thought about it, we just thought he was strange”.
According to neighbors, Mirko was known for being argumentative locally.
"It makes me sick the idea that they had no contact with other people, they didn't have any phones, they didn't go to school, the way they were mistreated, that's inhumane that shouldn't happen to anybody" one local resident told WCTV.
Not only were the young victims forced to work and produce, they were also abused, both verbally and physically, and assaulted regularly.
The victims had to adhere to a particular set of social rules that ruled out friendships with outsiders and prohibited them from owning cell phones. When out in public they were not allowed to agree with others or shake hands with anyone they were introduced to. On top of their limited interaction with others they were forced to smile and feign happiness in public spaces, presumably to conceal their oppression. If they failed to do so they would face the consequences.
Punishments for deviation usually consisted of verbal and physical assaults, sexual attacks and beatings. The victims claimed that Mirko beat them with a metal rod and they displayed injuries indicative of suffering the abuse they described. One of the young women had a spray of bruises across her arms and neck.
After a search of the property, officers uncovered a video of the abuse in action, in the form of recorded video clips of Mirko and Regina Ceska verbally abusing the two females for stealing food-likely out of desperation, as starving them and withholding sustenance was another of the Ceska’s punishments. Police also reported deviant web searches, such as, disturbingly, insest porn. The female victims were forced to endure sex acts against their will at the hand of their adoptive father while Regina Ceska jeered and encouraged the abuse, doing nothing to protect her children.
The couple was arrested on Friday. Mirko Ceska was charged with sexual battery, sexual assault, abuse and neglect. His wife, Regina, was charged with two counts of neglect and two counts of failure to report abuse, including the failure to report the abuse of a cognitively disabled adult. She was present in court on July 15th, where she was made to hand over her passport, prohibited from leaving the county and fitted with a GPS monitoring device.
