INDIANAPOLIS -- Three women were arrested Sunday night on accusations they neglected three children by -- among other things -- making them sleep in a bathroom and subjecting them to intense exercise sessions as a form of discipline.

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Neighbor Hears Noises, Calls Police

A neighbor of an apartment home in the 4200 block of Estate Drive on the city's southeast side called police Sunday afternoon after hearing screaming and banging, the Marion County Sheriff's Department said.

Police arrested the children's mother, Mary Corrigan, 33, and two other women at the home: Julie Watson, 26, and Edee Mowrer, 36. All three were released from jail and face charges of neglect of a dependent, RTV6's Chris Bavender reported.

The women also faced charges of child selling after Corrigan allegedly told police she gave her 10-year-old son to Watson because he was hard to control. Police said they received conflicting information as to who lived in the apartment, but they believed all six may have lived there together.

An officer who responded found the 10-year-old clothed but wet, pale and shaking, police said. When asked why he was cold, the boy said he had been in a bathtub for a couple of hours, according to a police report.

The boys' sisters, ages 8 and 6, told police they and their brother had been living in a bathroom at the apartment. The girls said they were sometimes forced to take cold showers when they were in trouble, according to police.

"They were all suffering from malnutrition. They had chapped feet, chapped lips, hands and knees," said Lt. Phil Burton of the sheriff's department.

The girls said they and their brother were forced to eat hot peppers and drink vinegar when they said something bad, police said. The girls also said that as a form of discipline, they were made to go through 25-minute workout sessions that included squats, pushups, jumping jacks and laps.

If the workouts were done incorrectly, the children would be forced to start at the beginning and/or take cold showers, the girls told police.

While officers were investigating, the women didn't appear to think they had treated the children harshly, police said.

The suspects' neighbor, Traci Parziale, said that before she called police, she asked Corrigan to see the 10-year-old after hearing noises from her apartment.

"She (Corrigan) threw me out of the house ... literally threw me out ... picked me up and threw me out," Parziale said. "I wish I would have did it sooner, I really do, but I'm just glad that something told me that I had to do it, because I didn't want to do it because she was my friend. I didn't want to believe she was doing those terrible things."

The children were treated at a hospital and placed in a guardian's home, Bavender reported.