Four mentally disabled adults, with the estimated mental capacity of 10-year-olds, were found chained to a boiler in a Philadelphia apartment house basement, reeking of excrement. The room also had several buckets filled with urine and feces.
Linda Ann Weston, 51, and Thomas Gregory, 47, both of Philadelphia, and Eddie Wright, 49, a homeless man from Texas, all face multiple charges in a case that is also being investigated by police in Texas and Florida.
“Criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, trespassing, kidnapping, simple assault, reckless endangerment of persons, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment,” are the initial charges, Philadelphia police said. “We’re going to find every crime possible in the crime code to put on these individuals.”
The four mentally disabled adults were being held by people who were stealing their disability checks, authorities said.
The names of the victims have not been released, and it is unclear where they come from.
It is believed the four – who range in age from 29 to 41 – were originally from Texas. They were recently taken from Texas to West Palm Beach, Florida, where they lived for at least a year, before arriving in Philadelphia on Oct. 4. Authorities, however, are not sure if the victims actually lived in Texas, or if that was merely another place their kidnappers stashed them.
Investigators said, the four disabled adults appeared to be malnourished while locked in the basement.
“They were able to communicate that they do know all parties that were withholding them from the outside world,” one officer said. “One — the 31-year-old — may have been with them for a while. It may be Linda’s child. She may just be a caregiver. But he said, ‘My mom brought us from Florida to Philadelphia.'”
The investigation is ongoing and a city agency serving the disabled has taken the four adults into its care.
The four, who were believed to have been brought to Philadelphia roughly 10 days ago, were discovered by the owner of the two-story, multi-unit apartment house.
As the man cleared what he said was an unusual amount of trash from his rental property, he also noticed light bulbs and other basic supplies missing from one of the apartments and the locked basement door, the police spokeswoman said.
“He heard dogs barking and took it upon himself to look further and, to his surprise,” she said, “this is the outcome.”
Two adult children of Weston’s who lived in the house were not arrested.
“They weren’t aware of what was going on,” authorities said.
