Police amazed woman was alive

As authorities in several states probe a case that one official described as "an incredibly tangled web of horror," Philadelphia police said Wednesday that finding four adults enslaved in a Tacony basement led them to another victim who was abused so severely they were amazed she was still alive.

For the last decade, police said, Beatrice Weston, 19, was held captive by the woman who police said also imprisoned four mentally challenged adults in a boiler-room dungeon.

When police took Weston into protective custody Tuesday, she had marks from being burned with a heated spoon, old fractures, wounds from being shot in the ankles with a pellet gun, and scars on her head, face, arms, and legs. She was being evaluated at a hospital.

"I've been a policeman for a long time, 40-odd years," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said at a Wednesday news conference. "And I have never seen a victim whose injuries were any more severe than what I saw last night. At least not a living victim. . . . It makes you want to cry when you see her."

So far, four people have been arrested in the case, which police said involved collecting Social Security checks from the disabled adults. The alleged scheme involves at least four states and potentially dozens of victims, and has unfolded with increasingly disturbing details.

Linda Ann Weston, 51, a convicted murderer, has been described by police as the ringleader and was charged with kidnapping and other offenses. Her boyfriend, Gregory Thomas, 47; and Eddie Wright, 49, a homeless man who describes himself as a reverend, were also charged.

On Wednesday, police arrested Weston's daughter, Jean McIntosh, 32, who lived in the building where the adults were imprisoned. Police would not comment on her role in the alleged scheme, but she was charged with the same offenses.

Police took six children and four teenagers into protective custody earlier this week after learning from authorities in West Palm Beach, Fla., that Weston had children in her care.

Two of the children, a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, are believed to be the children of Tamara Breeden, 29, one of the victims in the basement, who has been traveling with Weston for years. The father is one of the other victims found in the basement, police said.

The children are severely malnourished. Ramsey said the 2-year-old "kind of looked like a 6-month-old."

Police believe the other four children are somehow related to the Weston family, police said. DNA testing will be done to determine their parents, Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said. On Wednesday morning, police took McIntosh's two children, ages 8 and 10, into protective custody.

But it was the treatment Beatrice Weston endured that investigators called especially appalling.

"The things that I have heard, the things that have been described - I'm not sure that 'horrific' covers it," Mayor Nutter said at the news conference. "This is sheer madness. . . . I think this is, quite possibly, one of those visible signs of man's inhumanity to man."

Evers said Beatrice Weston's captivity began after she was caught in the middle of a feud between Linda Weston, who is her aunt, and her mother, Vicky. When Beatrice was 8, Evers said, Vicky Weston had a "medical issue." About that time, Evers said, Vicky Weston was notified that Linda Weston was taking custody of Beatrice.

Officials would not elaborate on whether Linda Weston legally took custody or whether the situation was approved by the state. Evers said that was under investigation.

A relative who visited Linda Weston's home in 2009 - she was living in Frankford then - told of being alarmed by Beatrice Weston's condition. The relative said the girl was curled on the floor in a corner of a room. Her hair was falling out, she was extremely thin, and was too weak to talk.

Linda Weston had a nickname for the frail girl, the relative said: "Piggy."

The relative, who did not want to be identified, reported the matter to the Special Victims Unit. The relative spoke to a detective and filed a formal complaint, and the detective said she would follow up on the matter.

But Linda Weston vanished, taking her niece with her.

Nutter would not comment on the involvement of the city's Department of Health and Human Services and other city agencies in Beatrice Weston's case, but he said a full investigation was under way.

"We'll get to the bottom of whatever we need to get to the bottom of," he said.

Police believe Linda Weston took Beatrice Weston to Texas and Florida. She fled Florida in early October after learning authorities were investigating abuse claims, police said.

She arrived in Philadelphia about two weeks ago, police said, bringing along Beatrice Weston and the four adults found in the basement, police said. She locked the three men and Breeden in the small, dank boiler room, chaining one man to the boiler so he would not escape. The prisoners used buckets for bathrooms. Wright fed them once or twice a day, they told police, and "counseled" them.

When McIntosh, Linda Weston's daughter, moved into the apartment on Longshore Avenue in Tacony about two years ago, landlord Turgut Gozleveli said she showed him discharge papers and said she had been an Army nurse in Texas. She told him she was collecting child support from various men and had an Army pension. She lived in the apartment with two young children whome she said were her brothers, investigators said.

Gozleveli, who discovered the people in the basement, said one of them told him Linda Weston had brought them to Philadelphia. Gozleveli said he then banged on McIntosh's door and found about a dozen adults and children in the apartment.

"We're having a party," he said McIntosh told him.

Police were called, and, as they lined everyone up in the hallway, Gozleveli said, Wright began to scream, "Those people down there are my people!"

A look inside McIntosh's three-bedroom apartment showed it to be sparsely furnished with a couch, baby seat, and air mattress in the living room. The refrigerator was nearly empty, containing only frankfurters, condiments, and drinks for infants.

Police now know that when they raided the house, Beatrice Weston was locked in a closet. After investigators left, she was moved to another address, police said.

On Tuesday evening, as police scooped up most of the children at the Longshore Avenue property, they found Beatrice Weston in the city's Frankford section.

District Attorney Seth Williams said Philadelphia authorities may bring more charges against Linda Weston and her accomplices. "My grasp on the English language limits how I can describe the evidence in this case," Williams said.

Asked where the case might be prosecuted, he said, "Wherever the prisons would be worse. Federal prison might be too nice."

The four adults removed from the basement are in the care of the city, police said. DHS will handle reuniting them with their families.

Police say Linda Weston targeted vulnerable adults, taking control of their bank accounts and collecting their Social Security checks and other benefits. Since arresting her, investigators have found identification documents for as many as 50 people in her possession, strong indications the alleged scheme is wide-reaching and involves more victims.

Linda Weston grew up in Philadelphia, where she lived with several siblings. In 1981, she and her sister Venus starved a 25-year-old man to death in a closet at their North Philadelphia apartment over two months. The man, Bernardo Ramos, had impregnated Venus Weston, and the women became angry when he said he would not pay child support.

At her trial, Linda Weston's younger sister and brother testified against her, describing bursts of violence and her brutal treatment of them and others. Venus Weston's lawyer claimed that Linda Weston's older sister had forced their younger siblings to have sex with one another.

Linda Weston entered prison on June 7, 1985, to serve a four- to 10-year sentence for third-degree murder. She served her time at the state correctional institution in Muncy, a women's prison.

She was paroled on Jan. 15, 1987, and a condition of her parole was that she undergo psychological therapy and take medication, records show. She completed probation in 1993, and her case was closed.

Shortly after her release, police believe, Linda Weston began her pattern of meeting vulnerable adults and manipulating them. She also moved often from state to state, leaving a trail of lawsuits and eviction notices.

David Wong, one of Linda Weston's short-term landlords in Norfolk, Va., in 2008, said she and a man asked to rent an apartment from him, saying they needed to move in immediately. They gave $400 as an initial payment and promised to give him the rest of the rent the next day if he gave them the key.

Wong said he gave her the key, but when he arrived to collect the remaining money the next day, he found the apartment filled with about a dozen people, including several children, and suitcases piled on the floor. "I was shocked," he said. "Homeless people. That was the first thought that crossed my mind."

When Linda Weston refused to pay any more, Wong called police. But he was told the only way to get rid of his new tenants was to go through a formal eviction procedure, which dragged on for two months.

When Linda Weston and her group finally left, they stole an air-conditioner and "anything else they could take," Wong said.

In October of that year, Linda Weston rented another Norfolk apartment and told the landlord she was a caretaker for several women there. One of the women, Maxine Lee, 39, died a month later. Weston fled, the landlord said.

The city's medical examiner found that Lee died of acute meningitis. The death was ruled "natural causes" - the same ruling initially issued when Ramos' body was found in an abandoned Philadelphia building in 1981.

Officer Chris Amos, a spokesman for the Norfolk police, said that in light of the charges in Philadelphia, investigators would review the file.