This is the postcard village in Spain where a nosy neighbour’s ‘impressive’ and ‘forensic’ detective work uncovered a ‘house of horrors’ that shocked the nation.
Until a few days ago, Toleo was an unknown beauty spot nestled in the foot of Mount Naranco, in the northern region of Asturias.
Home to no more than 200 people, it’s so tranquil and secluded that you’re more likely to bump into sheep than people.
So when the now-infamous Steffen couple were looking for a place to lay low with their three young sons, they probably thought they had found the perfect spot.
Little did they know that their ‘determined’ and suspecting neighbour, Silvia, would begin keeping tabs on their every move after growing concerned by the father’s odd behaviour.
Peeking through the blinds of her windows or eavesdropping from her garden, the university professor was able to build a ‘forensic’ style report that would prove the catalyst for the parents’ arrests.
While she has been praised as a hero, locals told the Spanish Eye this weekend that they regret not rescuing the ‘suffering children’ sooner.
For over a four-year period, German national Christian Steffen, 53, and his American wife Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, were able to finely tune the cruel and strict regimen of their home.
It allegedly saw their three sons – a 10-year-old and twins aged eight – permanently kept indoors while being forced to wear face masks and nappies and having their bowel movements ‘highly controlled’, among a series of other alleged crimes.
Adding salt to the wound, it all occurred just a few doors down from a police chief’s home, and across the road from a convent, which dozens of locals flock to each day to buy baked goods made by the resident nuns.
The alleged campaign of abuse – said to be motivated by an ‘extreme fear of Covid’ – was only exposed in April thanks to the investigative work of the inquisitive university professor living next door.
It all began in August 2024, when Silvia, who lives at 15B, saw what she thought was a young girl playing in the garden next door, at 15A.
She thought nothing of it at the time, believing a friend of the neighbour had been visiting with their daughter.
However, some months ago, she noticed movement behind one of the blinds while the neighbour – who she assumed lived alone – was collecting a delivery from the front door.
It suddenly dawned on her that the ‘girl’ she saw last summer could be living inside the house.
Like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Silvia began spying on the property at every chance she got.
Her large windows guaranteed an unbridled view of the property next door, which was just 50ft away, while her slatted blinds kept her out of sight of the neighbour.
In a ‘forensic level’ diary, she jotted down every minor detail, including when the blinds and curtains moved and when the father took the bins out.
She also kept tabs on his many, many deliveries of food, medicine and other goods – and crucially, the times she heard multiple children’s voices.
After months of observations, she felt compelled to act after becoming convinced that children were being kept inside the home and forbidden from leaving.
In her notes, she jotted down how food deliveries seemed to be for a family, not one person.
Speaking to El Mundo, sources at Oviedo City Council compared Silvia’s notes to a professional police report, adding that it was likely she had help from someone familiar with such processes.
Silvia did such a good job that when she handed her findings in on April 14, the local police began investigating immediately, in what sources described as ‘unheard of’.
Investigators soon realised that only the father was registered at the address.
Adding to their concern, it appeared he had not left the home beyond walking to the gate to collect deliveries.
While monitoring the house, detectives noticed one food delivery was far too big for a single person, confirming what Silvia had found during her investigations.
But it was the large order of diapers that was said to be the smoking gun, and a raid of the property was launched on April 28. Police would later thank Silvia for her dedicated work.
One source said: ‘Without that neighbour, the children would almost certainly have gone undetected in that house for many more years.’
When approached by the Spanish Eye at her home, a humble Silvia refused to comment on whether she was a hero and did not want to comment on the case.
Plain-clothed police officers later arrived at the scene, which has become somewhat of a macabre tourist attraction.
Passersby continue to walk up the driveway to take photos of the infamous ‘house of horrors’ – despite Silvia having placed a barricade at the bottom of the road.
One of the officers told this newspaper: ‘She is a bit freaked out by the attention and is not going to talk, especially because the case is still active and making its way through the courts.’
He said the Steffen parents remain behind bars but could not comment further.According to reports, only the father of the Steffen home was allowed to open the front door.
When he let police in on April 28, they discovered the family were living in total squalor.
One guest bedroom had become a dumping ground for the children’s used nappies.
Under the parents’ bed were piles of used sanitary pads and tampons, and mounds of other filth.
According to Spanish reports, 22 jars of vaseline were also found on the mother’s bedside table. She reportedly weighed 22 stone at the time of her arrest.
The twins were kept in cribs meant for infants, with police finding disturbing drawings of monsters scrawled on them.
On the first floor, a guest room had signs of being used as a classroom for the boys, with cops finding a table, three chairs, human anatomy books and a map of the world.
Almost all the blinds of the property were closed, apart from in the children’s bedrooms, which investigators discovered were shut every day at 5.10pm.
Officers also found four oxygen-purifying ozone generators. The air purifiers, which became popular during the pandemic, were plugged in 24/7.
The case has shocked Spain and rocked the local community of Toleo, which until recently, was a relatively unknown village of no more than 200 people.
But locals are said to be reeling after discovering the children’s alleged years-long suffering.
Adding salt to the wound, the litany of alleged crimes happened just a few doors down from a police captain, and opposite a convent, where dozens of locals flock to daily to buy the nuns’ cookies and cakes.
Local Maria Jesus, who lives higher up on the mountain, told the Spanish Eye that she had suspected something was wrong, but never thought to involve herself like Silvia did.
She said: ‘I once saw the mother walking down the road in a summer dress and flip flops in the middle of winter, they were not okay in the head.
‘I think it happened to a lot of people during Covid, the lockdowns and everything really affected some people.’
Maria said the village is filled with wealthy homeowners, and that a ‘chief or captain’ of the Civil Guard lives just a few doors down.
‘It’s easy to hide here, no one is going to bother you, but it was their strange behaviour that raised alarms,’ she added.
‘A Mercadona truck would pull into the drive and deliver far too much food for one person, so it’s no surprise the neighbour became suspicious.
‘But you can’t enter a private home without a court order, so she needed to collect evidence and give the police a reason to investigate.’
She added: ‘I’ve lived here for 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like it, it was a media circus when the news first broke.
‘It’s all anyone has been talking about, it was very shocking, but thank god she (Silvia) did something.’
Two nuns who live at the convent across the road told the Spanish Eye that, ‘regrettably’, they knew nothing of the tenants until reading about them in the press.
One said: ‘It was horrible to read about, the press were here for days afterwards.
‘We never saw anybody in the house and we knew nothing, we assumed it was empty, the front garden is so unkept.’
The sister added: ‘People here live very independently so it’s not unusual to go unnoticed, but it was horrible to find out about it and that it was right next to us.’
The only contact the nuns have with the outside world is through the window where they sell their pastries, cakes and pies.
Local Marino Guardado has lived in Toleo for 23 years in a home just above that of the Steffens.
He told the El Diario newspaper: ‘The news is a scandal. In four years I’ve never seen anyone, not a man, a woman, the children, a dog, or a cat. As far as I could see, there was no one there, and therefore, there was no activity…’
He said the grass in front of the house is very tall as if ‘no person or animal has walked on it for years.’
He said the local community is ‘tremendously angry’ for not ‘doing something for the innocent children’ sooner.
‘I have no idea what the couple are like, because I never saw them, never,’ he added.
Postman Julio Luque is one of the few to have met any of the family, having made deliveries to the German father Christian.
He said: ‘The German was always at home and opened the door for me with his mask on.
‘He answered the phone, and I never thought there could be more people inside. No noise was ever heard.’
The Steffens had reportedly moved from Germany in December 2021 over fears they would lose custody of their three sons.
According to Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, they wanted to homeschool their children, which is prohibited in the country.
Allegedly motivated by an ‘extreme fear’ of Covid-19, the parents moved to the isolated home in northern Spain two months after father Christian signed the lease in October 2021 (stating he would be the only person living there).
According to property portal Idealista, the pink, 333m2 property was built in 2002 and is worth up to €480,000.
After moving in during the sixth wave of the pandemic, the Steffens were able to inflict years of alleged child abuse and neglect against their three sons, who were forced to wear three masks each and were still using nappies.
They were also found to be suffering from extreme constipation after their toilet visits became highly controlled.
From their arrival in late 2021 and until their arrests last month, the parents almost never left the house and the boys were never seen outside the home.
When they were finally rescued on April 28, at least one of the boys is said to have fallen to their knees to touch the grass ‘in amazement’.
It emerged the twins had been sleeping in cribs with terrifying drawings of monsters on them. They were allegedly allowed to open and close their blinds just once per day.
The Steffen parents are still behind bars and face up to seven years in jail each.
They are facing charges of domestic and psychological abuse, child abandonment – and potentially unlawful detention.
Christian is a doctor in philosophy but was working remotely as a human resources consultant.
This allowed him to pay for the rent and constant delivery of food and medicines without anyone having to leave the home.
Following their arrests, investigating judge Begoña Fernandez refused to grant the couple bail and stripped them of their custody and parental rights over the three boys. The children are now under the care of the state.
