3 face new charges in Philadelphia basement-captive case

[The Northerner]

(10-28) 10:23 PDT PHILADELPHIA, (AP) -- Three suspects arrested in an alleged Social Security fraud plot in which police say mentally disabled people were kept in a basement now face additional charges over the abuse of a victim who was kept locked in a closet for at least two weeks, prosecutors said on Friday.

District Attorney Seth Williams announced new charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, conspiracy and other counts against Linda Ann Weston, 52, her daughter Jean McIntosh 32, and Eddie "the Rev. Ed" Wright, 50, in connection with the abuse of the 19-year-old woman. Investigators say the victim was only let out of the closet twice a day to eat and occasionally use the bathroom.

Prosecutors did not release the victim's name, but the alleged abuse is consistent with that previously described by police as being suffered by Weston's niece, 19-year-old Beatrice Weston. Beatrice Weston was kept locked in a closet at the apartment where four mentally disabled people were rescued from a squalid basement earlier this month, authorities said, and had suffered severe injuries, including evidence she had been burned with a hot spoon and suffered pellet gun wounds.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has described the abuse suffered by Beatrice Weston as being among the worst he has ever seen in his law enforcement career. In all, eight juveniles and four young adults between the ages 2 to 19 linked to the case have been taken into protective custody. Investigators are still conducting DNA tests on them in an attempt to figure out the relationships, police said on Friday.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/26/national/a072940D67.DTL

[tblue]

1. Did these freaks think they'd never get caught?

I just can't wrap my brain around it. How in the world can a person become so cruel?