One of the six people, originally believed to have been rescued from an isolated Dutch farmhouse where they had allegedly been held captive for nearly a decade, is now facing criminal charges.
According to PEOPLE, who received an update from authorities in Drenthe, a 67-year-old man was placed under arrest on Thursday.
“The man is currently being suspected of being a co-perpetrator of unlawful deprivation of liberty and of abuse, in the sense of prejudicing the health of others and money laundering,” the update from the Drenthe Police said.
Dutch police said on Thursday that a group of people discovered on an isolated farm this week may have been kept there against their will for up to nine years. The 67-year-old man said he is the father of the group.
“We have reasons to suspect that the six persons involved did not stay in the house … of their own free will,” police said in a statement. “We are investigating whether a certain religion or philosophy forms the cause of their living situation.”
Police raided the farm in a rural village 80 miles northeast of Amsterdam on Monday after one of the alleged siblings, a 25-year-old man, left the building and raised the alarm. Upon arrival, they found six people who said they belong to one family, in makeshift rooms in the farm, which was barely visible from the road behind a row of trees.
Drone images of the land showed a large vegetable garden on one side of a group of buildings and stacks of chopped wood.
Authorities previously arrested a 58-year-old man on Monday, an Austrian national who was renting the property, shortly after a raid on suspicion of involvement in “deprivation of liberty and harming the health of other” as well as charges of money laundering.
While the six people on the farm and the 25-year-old who raised the alarm say they are all from the same family — a father and six siblings; all now young adults — police say they are still investigating the exact nature of their exact relationship as none of the siblings appears to have been registered with proper authorities.
