Their adopted 16-year-old son weighed 59 pounds when hospitalized Jan. 21 in Citrus County, which started an investigation, officials said.

Twin boys, 14, subsequently were found to weigh 36 and 38 pounds. Two girls, 13 and 12, also were severely undernourished.

John Dollar, 58, and his wife, Linda, 51, were arrested by sheriff's deputies in Utah after the two were traced through cell phone calls, said Capt. Jim Cernich of the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

Cernich did not know Friday evening whether the couple would waive extradition, but he predicted Citrus charges would take priority over possible charges in Hillsborough County and Tennessee, where the abuses may have been going on for years. ``Our case is fairly recent and much further along,'' Cernich said.

A warrant charges the Dollars with one count each of aggravated child abuse involving the children, all of whom were adopted.

``The twins were particularly shocking,'' said sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney. ``The pictures were reminiscent of something you would have seen at Auschwitz.''

Cernich said they had injuries supporting claims they made to investigators.

In addition to being starved, some of them had toenails pulled out with pliers and were beaten with sticks and belts, locked in a closet and subjected to electrical shocks, officials said.

There is no sign two other children in the household were abused. All seven are in the custody of the state Department of Children & Families.

Linda Dollar wrote in a 1995 DCF application that she left home at age 16 because of an alcoholic and abusive father. She also wrote that her first marriage ended because of abuse.

DCF officials said the Dollars had been licensed as foster parents in Hillsborough County from March to October 1995. Documents show the family was no longer in Florida's foster care system when they left the state.

The Dollars kept a low profile in recent years and lived in relative seclusion, moving in August to Beverly Hills in north Citrus.

Some of their former neighbors said Friday they hardly even noticed the seven youngsters, who were home- schooled and rarely played with others on the block or used the family's pool.

The Dollars failed to appear at a DCF hearing Monday in Inverness. Their motor home was found Friday in a recreation vehicle park near Davenport in Polk County. When they were arrested in Utah about 7:10 p.m. EST, they were driving a gold 2000 Lexus registered to them.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Jim Tunstall can be reached at (352) 628-5558.