FBI agents raided a Norman bed-and-breakfast last week to look for evidence that the inn’s owners have been holding a Cambodian woman as an indentured servant.
The Cambodian woman works at Whispering Pines Inn, and her employers have allegedly subjected her to mental abuse and coerced her into giving up a child for adoption, according to a report by Brianna Bailey in The Oklahoman.
Bailey reports that Rany and Thavory Kchao, the owners of Whispering Pines Inn, were the woman’s immigration sponsors. A search warrant application filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma alleges the woman signed a promissory note for $8,000 to pay back travel expenses and payment to her family.
The Kchaos told the Cambodian woman she would have to work three years to pay off the $8,000, but after working at Whispering Pines 14 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, she should have received about $80,000 in wages, according to the search warrant application.
Despite limited English, the Cambodia woman developed a friendship with another employee. She told her co-worker that she gave birth to a baby girl in March 2015, but was forced to give up the baby for adoption.
The Kchaos would not let the Cambodian woman have access to her immigration documents and did not allow her to leave the 19-acre bed-and-breakfast compound in southeast Norman on her own, the former co-worker told authorities.
In text message exchanges with her co-worker, who she called “Grandma,” the Cambodian woman expressed feelings of isolation and abuse.
"Grandma why do I they look down on me? I'm alone," the Cambodian woman wrote in one text. "Am I stupid? Grandma pa. Why they always say it like that," the Cambodian woman wrote in another text. "It will make me hurt my heart and my mind. I try save money to them. I will leave."
A receptionist at Whispering Pines told The Oklahoman that the Kchaos would not comment on the investigation.
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