A forty-seven year-old Italian woman has been freed after having been imprisoned in her family’s home for nearly two decades, presumably because she had a child out of wedlock:

Authorities arrested the woman’s brother, a farmhand, and sister, who worked in a nursery school, and put her 80-year-old mother under house arrest. The three were being investigated on suspicion of mistreatment and kidnapping.

The Carabinieri paramilitary police said in a statement that the woman had been locked up in the room since 1990 because of an unwanted pregnancy and that she was kept in “indescribable” conditions.

Italian TV showed the room with a bed with soiled sheets and a dirty toilet and sink, as well as plastic bottles of water and tin bowls.

Police said the woman’s son, now 17, was living with relatives in town and didn’t know about his mother.

Officials are trying to locate the 17-year-old’s father in order to determine whether the woman’s psychological problems were caused by being locked up in a room full of shit for 18 years, or if she was possibly crazy before because… What. The fuck. Does it really matter whether or not she was insane before being locked up in filth by her family? Does that excuse it in any way?

You know, because. Nursing homes are pretty expensive, and… No!

Is the stigma of having an “illegitimate” child pretty prevalent in your own family? We assume our family would be upset, but not so upset to have us live in utter filth for upwards of 18 years. We’re progressive like that.

Woman freed after being locked up for 18 years [AP]