SEATTLE -- A Carnation couple was charged Monday with criminal mistreatment for the abuse of their 14-year-old daughter, who was emaciated and suffering from severe malnutrition, said Dan Donohoe of the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

The father, Jon Pomeroy, 43, and stepmother, Rebecca Long, 44, are both charged with one count of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of second-degree criminal mistreatment, Donohoe said.

Pomeroy and Long restricted the 14-year-old's food and water, leaving her severely malnourished and weighing as much as a normal 7- or 8-year-old, the King County Sheriff's Office said.

[PDF:] Certification Of Probable Cause
VIDEO: Parents Denied Teenage Girl Food, Water

The child weighed 48 pounds, was 4 feet 7 inches tall and "was extremely skinny and pale" when a deputy came to check on her last August in the family's Carnation-area home, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies said she and her 12-year-old brother were removed from the house. She was admitted to Children’s Medical Center, where she underwent treatment for severe malnutrition for two weeks.

DISCUSS: Case Of Malnourished Girl

The investigation revealed that Long restricted her stepdaughter's water intake to about one-half of a small Dixie cup per day and that the mother monitored her showers to keep the child from drinking water, deputies said.

“The little girl told us during the winter, condensation would form on the inside of the window glass and run down and she had a straw and would go along and suck up the moisture to try to get some sort of fluids into her,” said John Urquhart of King County Sheriff's Office.

She told deputies she had not been to a doctor for several years, was giving mostly toast to eat and was allowed to shower once every two or three weeks.

The investigation found that the girl and her brother slept on the floor of their room. A heavy dresser was pushed in front of the bedroom door after the girl was caught sneaking out of her room to drink water from the toilet, the sheriff's office said.

The girl told investigators that her stepmother duct-taped her hands behind her back and put her head in the toilet to discipline her.

Detectives found a double deadbolt on the children's room. They do not believe either child had been to school in years, the sheriff's office said.

The girl and her bother are in foster care.

Since going into foster care, the girl has gained twenty pounds in the last six weeks. She’s making friends at a private school and her foster father is not reporting any behavioral problems.

Pomeroy is a software engineer and Long does not work outside the home, the sheriff's office said.

If convicted as charged, the couple could face 36 to 48 months in prison.

Arraignment is scheduled for October 27 at the King County Courthouse.

KIRO 7 called the Department of Social and Health Services regarding this case.

DSHS Spokesman Thomas Shapley said the agency visited the home in March 2005 and found no evidence of physical abuse. Also, allegations of neglect against the stepmother were founded because the stepmother admitted to leaving girl in locked room on more than one occasion.

The stepmother agreed it was unacceptable and the case was closed April 2005.