Attendees of Christian programs for troubled teens say they were tied to goats for days and branded with a cross as punishment

According to an in-depth investigation by NBC News' Tyler Kingkade published Wednesday, former attendees of two Christian programs for at-risk youth said they had traumatizing experiences.

Trinity Teen Solutions for girls and Triangle Cross Ranch for boys are programs that are run by the same family. Women who attended the girls' ranch told NBC they were subjected to brutal manual labor that left them injured.

We did work from the time we woke up to the time we went to sleep. The 19-year-old said that she would always do it. They wanted us to do things that grown men do.

Staff restricted their meals and forced them to run. Three women said they were tied to a goat with a leash for a few days.

The attendee of the boys' ranch told NBC he had a scar after he was branded in the shape of a cross.

Insider didn't get a response from Trinity Teen Solutions or Triangle Cross Ranch. The ranch owners wouldn't speak to NBC.

In December 2020, a lawsuit was filed by former attendees accusing the ranches of being involved in human trafficking, abuse, forced labor, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Attendees were forced to be silent for weeks at a time, were deprived of food and sleep, and were treated by unqualified therapists, according to a lawsuit.

The family that owned the ranches denied the accusations in the lawsuit.

"Trinity denies these allegations, we have never used our patients to do forced labor," she said. The population that we work with at our program is very difficult and high-risk. Before parents sent them to Trinity as a last resort, they had many treatment failures.