After a decade of abuse at the hands of their own father, twin sisters Amber and Alicia Butterfield are ready to tell their story.

Jeffrey L. Butterfield Sr., was convicted Dec. 22 of systematically raping and beating his daughters from the time they were 6 until they were finally removed from his home at the age of 16 in 2006. Butterfield was used to getting visits from child protective services, visits which were scheduled. Eventually, alerted by a food bank the girls were calling frequently saying they had no food, a Grays Harbor County deputy and a representative of Child Protective Services made an unannounced visit to their Humptulips home and the girls were removed.

They were adopted by Linda Pavletich, a former Hoquiam school librarian, within weeks, and soon after that Alicia approached the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office in April 2006 with a tale that horrified investigators.

“I’d have to stand outside and keep watch when my dad would have sex with my sister,” said Amber. Both daughters were raped hundreds of times over the years, but it was Alicia who suffered the brunt of the sexual abuse.

When the sisters first underwent forensic interviews, Amber was hesitant to detail the abuse. Both girls then shared detailed accounts of the sexual abuse by their father.

The twins and three brothers lived in squalor, moving often. For a time the family lived in the Capital Forest.

“I remember computer parts stacked floor to ceiling, beer cans and garbage everywhere,” said Alicia.

Their mother also suffered from Butterfield’s abuse. She left for good when the twins were about 9, when she came home and the children ran out to meet her, saying they had been forced to dig a hole in the yard, where he planned to bury their mother after killing her when she got home from work.

“She wanted to take the girls out of that house, but they were certain their dad would kill them all if they left,” said Pavletich. He had threatened to do just that if the girls told anyone about the abuse, tried to leave him, or even spoke to or looked at a boy. Despite their biological mother’s attempts to get her girls out of the home, they were too terrified of retribution to leave on their own.

“I remember going Dumpster diving behind the Hoquiam Dominos,” said Amber. Butterfield was on Social Security and there was rarely enough food around for the family. The kids said they would sometimes take sharpened broom handles to spear spawning salmon just to have something to eat. They were “skin and bones” when finally removed from the home.

The twins and Pavletich say the girls did try to approach teachers when they were in school about the abuse.

“They all were pretty sure they were suffering some form of abuse, but never knew exactly to what degree,” said Pavletich. Her office became a safe haven for the girls when they were in school in Hoquiam and it was she who adopted the sisters just weeks after they were finally removed from Butterfield’s home.

“I remember free popcorn at Les Schwab,” said Alicia. “When we did come in to town we had to wear dad’s clothes, big and baggy, and were not allowed to even look out the windows.”

At age 13, Amber had a miscarriage. The child had been fathered by Butterfield, she said.

The twins developed unique ways of dealing with the abuse. They would often communicate by talking with their hands, which they had named. They would partially cover their eyes when they spoke to anyone.

“Alicia had a picture of Cher she got when she was 13,” said Pavletich. “It was her security blanket. She loved Cher, and can sing like her too. Cher would join us for every meal and Alicia would feed her.”

Alicia recalls looking at that picture of Cher when her father was raping her. Both sisters found comfort however they could.

The Cher photo, tattered by years of being with her for years, now sits safely in a box at her home, said Alicia.

The twins’ coping mechanisms made them a target of fellow students. Their odd behavior at times got them into trouble with teachers. They found solace with Pavletich in the library, learning how to catalog and check out books.

Drugs and alcohol were present throughout most of their lives. Butterfield was a heavy drinker, smoked marijuana and took meth, they said. Amber said he would make the girls drink and take drugs. “I went in to the library (where Pavletich worked) high on meth one day. She had no idea,” said Alicia.

“He would take us to a friend of his and sometimes would make us sit on the old man’s lap and let him feel our breasts,” said Alicia. Butterfield allowed this because he relied on the man for money. Butterfield would also drag the twins along to drug deals. “We’d be in the car for hours, with our heads down so we couldn’t see out the windows,” said Alicia.

The abuse was frequent and sexual, psychological and physical in nature. Amber was once chased out of the home by her father, who was pointing a rifle at her threatening to shoot her. He hit Alicia with the butt of that gun. Once, Butterfield smashed Amber’s head through a window, the sisters said.

After initially contacting police in 2006, the girls recanted their story. According to Deputy Prosecutor Erin Riley, who prosecuted the case, Butterfield had managed to get a hold of one or both of the sisters and threatened violence if they continued with their attempt to put him away.

By 2017, both daughters had become single mothers themselves, and Alicia decided she was finally strong enough to come forward. The Sheriff’s Office was able to get details of a conversation between Butterfield and Alicia; according to court documents, during that conversation Butterfield apologized for what he had done and said he had cleaned up his act and didn’t know what caused him to abuse the girls the way he did. Investigators were satisfied and Butterfield was arrested soon after.

Denying the charges and accusing the twins of making everything up throughout the case, Butterfield was convicted in December by a jury after a short deliberation. When he is sentenced by Judge McCauley Feb. 23 he is facing 40 years to life.

The girls, now in their late-20s, both suffer lingering effects of the abuse they suffered. Both deal with post traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. Both continue counseling. Alicia is enrolled in Grays Harbor College and has performed with the theater group there; she recently had a role in a production of “American Idiot.” Amber will soon be back in school herself and hopes some day to work with young people who have gone through the type of abuse she suffered.

The two are writing a book about their experiences. They both hope that it will empower victims of abuse, and they’re putting themselves into the public light now in hopes other victims of sexual assault will take their example and come out against their attackers, no matter who they are.

“It’s like, we were scared at first,” said Amber. Now that the trial is over and their father convicted, both want to help other victims find the strength to put predators behind bars.

Oh, and Alicia and her sister both got to see Cher, Alicia’s hero and strength for much of her life, at a show in Vegas last May. “Now I just have to meet Ellen DeGeneres,” she said.