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(Editor's note: This story has been modified since it was first published. We have removed the names of the two children involved, at the request of their dependency attorneys.)

Sam Bosma

Steven Dewall

The house in Carnation.

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Years before she was rescued from virtual imprisonment, Janet (not her real name) tried unsuccessfully to run away from home.

On a spring afternoon in March 2005, 11-year-old Janet, accompanied by one of her elementary-school classmates, opted out of her usual bus ride home and fled for the safety of somewhere other than her parents' Carnation residence. Hours later, a local man called Carnation Elementary School's main office to report that the two had arrived at his house a few miles away, and were resting on his front lawn. They were eventually returned to the custody of school officials. There, months of silence gave way to confession as Janet revealed the real reason she had bolted: fear.

According to witness statements given to investigators from the King County Sheriff's Department, Janet begged her teachers, including Susie Marshall, not to send her home. "Please don't call my dad," she said. "He won't believe me."

Per the guidelines of the Riverview School District's homeschooling program, Janet attended Carnation Elementary two days a week—often enough for at least two of her teachers to notice the slightness of her frame. Still, they didn't suspect just how bizarre the disciplinary methods at the Pomeroy household had become.

"From what we could tell, no one had any idea that this was going on," says Carol Gould, one of Janet's instructors.

Each morning after her father, Jon Pomeroy, a software engineer at a Bellevue information technology firm called Estorian, left for work, Janet remained locked inside a windowless room in a converted garage while her father's wife, Rebecca Long, slept. To use the bathroom, she told her teachers, she had to bang on the wall to alert her younger brother that she needed to go.

More harrowing details of her situation followed. Janet was not allowed to play outside with her friends or use the computer or phone, she said. Her only full meal came in the evening, after her father arrived home from work and prepared dinner. Beyond that, the only food she was allowed each day was the two pieces of toast given to her when Long awoke each afternoon. Her stepmother, Janet added, "hit her a lot."

Marshall, who declined to comment for this story, placed a 911 call later that afternoon. Kevin Stackpole, a deputy with the King County Sheriff's Department, arrived at the school to investigate. He noted, in agreement with Marshall, that the then-11-year-old Janet appeared thin—but he could see no bruises or other obvious signs that she was being physically abused.

Jon Pomeroy eventually arrived at the school. Questioned about Janet's allegation that his wife had been leaving his eldest child locked inside her room, Pomeroy claimed he wasn't aware of the situation. (Janet would later tell investigators that her stepmother warned her not to tell anyone.) Upset at the revelation, her father admitted that his long work hours kept him away from home, and that his wife and daughter had a tendency to "push each other's buttons."

Pomeroy, now 44, collected Janet from the principal's office and took her out to dinner. While the pair was away, Stackpole went to the family's home near Lake Marcel to question Janet's stepmother. There Long confirmed that relations with her stepdaughter had been chilly since 2001, when Jon, his kids in tow, made the trek from Utah to live with Long in Carnation. The two met while working together for WordPerfect at the word-processing giant's Orem, Utah, headquarters. They began dating before Long moved to Washington, and were eventually hitched in 2005.

The 45-year-old Long copped to locking Janet inside her room, explaining that she did it so Janet would not "come out and take things." Her teachers at Carnation Elementary told investigators that they had no record of stealing from other students. School officials at Stillwater Elementary, Janet's previous school, said the same. But Long insisted that while Janet had been enrolled there years earlier, she had gotten into trouble for taking things from other students without their permission. When asked, Long claimed to be unaware that confining a person to an enclosed space with no exits was against the law.

State law prevents law enforcement and Child Protective Services (CPS) from removing a child from a caregiver's custody unless it can be determined that there is an imminent risk to that child's safety. Satisfied that there was no such risk after finding Janet's younger brother (whom we'll call Carson) in good health—and after the Pomeroys promised to remove the locks on Janet's door—Stackpole departed.

A CPS social worker came to the same conclusion after her own visit to the Pomeroy home a few days later. In an interview, Janet suggested some level of détente had been achieved between her and Long. She also took back some of her previous statements about her diet, saying that there was food available in the house but that she sometimes simply chose not to partake out of frustration.