(CNN) A New Mexico woman will appear in court Wednesday over accusations she tortured several of her 15 children and boiled the family's litter of newborn puppies in a large sealed pot, authorities say.

San Juan County resident Martha Crouch is charged with child abuse, extreme animal cruelty and obstruction of an investigation on child abuse or neglect, according to a criminal complaint and arrest affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate KOAT.

In a series of interviews, one child said she shot him in the arm with a shotgun while he was taking out the trash, put one of her daughters on a "fat chain" because she ate too much and beat another daughter until she miscarried, according to the criminal complaint released by the New Mexico Police Department.

Martha and Timothy Crouch.

They moved several times to avoid investigators

To stop the children from reporting the alleged abuse, the parents threatened that if they said anything to police, social services would take them away and rape them, court records show.

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