Obscura: A True Crime Podcast · Justin Drown

CHILD ABUSE: Tina Ramirez | Piedmont, OK 2024

·43 min·2 clips

A child’s letter says, “I think she’s going to kill me,” and describes scissors at the throat.

1. Obscura: A True Crime Podcast covers the Piedmont, Oklahoma child abuse case involving Tina Ramirez and Anthony Abaziaco. 2. The episode centers on a Piedmont Police Department officer, Tina Ramirez, and a 14-year-old runaway whose account drives the investigation. 3. The episode asks how a 14-year-old could be found weighing around 60 pounds and what police uncovered inside the home. 4. On March 15, 2024, an officer responds to a runaway call and finds the girl hiding under a blanket near a building. 5. The girl says she is scared of Tina and claims Tina locks children in a closet as punishment. 6. She says the most recent closet confinement happened around Easter and lasted four days. 7. She tells the officer Tina tased her after she was caught with her sister’s school snacks. 8. On the ride to the house, the girl keeps describing fear, hunger, and punishment. 9. Tina tells the officer she held a Halloween party, bought an 84-inch projector, and decorated cupcakes for the kids. 10. The officer says that explanation sounds forced and asks to search the home. 11. Inside, he describes ripped carpet, concrete floors, stained walls, nonworking ceiling lights, and LED lamps. 12. In Tina’s room, officers find the taser the girl described in the squad car. 13. The officer confronts Tina with a child’s handwritten letter that mentions scissors at the throat and fear of being killed. 14. Tina denies abusing the children and says the letter is how the child vents. 15. The officer points to the children’s thin bodies and says they look malnourished. 16. Tina says she thought the children had parasites and bought medicine, but she admits they had not seen a physician in two or three years. 17. The episode shows the officer’s tone shifting from professional to openly angry as he presses Tina about the food locks and cameras. 18. Later, the officer arrests Tina and Anthony at the house and explains that DHS is taking the children. 19. Listeners who follow true-crime police interviews and child neglect cases will want this. 20. Listeners who want light, low-conflict stories should skip this.

As heard by us

A grim case that turns household control into evidence.

The piece stays grounded in a March 15, 2024 police response in Piedmont, Oklahoma, and it does its best work when it lingers on the officer's shaken reaction and the house itself.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a case that starts with a runaway report and a 14-year-old hidden under a blanket, then turns into a waking nightmare of starvation and fear.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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