What’s wrong with the world when, in 2011, a bizarre kidnapping/human trafficking ring involving disabled adults is uncovered?
In case you haven’t heard, police in Philadelphia have arrested 3 suspects after officers found 4 mentally challenged individuals chained together over the weekend in a 15 by 15 foot sub-basement of a Philadelphia apartment building.
51-year-old Linda Ann Weston, 47-year-old Gregory Thomas, and 49-year-old Eddie Wright, were all taken into custody yesterday and are now facing a myriad of charges, including criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.
The 4 victims are all adults, ranging in age from 29 to 41, but each with the mental capacity of a child. One of the victims is 40-year-old Herbert Knowles, who, along with Tamara Breeden and Derwin McLemire, told police that Weston and 2 other people abused them while they were in her care over the last year.
 |
| Herbert Knowles |
Knowles said he was shackled to a boiler and was hit by 1 of the 2 men arrested with Weston. Breeden said she was hit on her head and in the mouth, even showing where her teeth had been knocked out. McLemire said he met Weston through an online dating service and tried to escape but didn’t get away “so they got me.”
A maintenance man at the apartment building in Philly became suspicious Saturday when he found a basement door chained shut, prompting him to call police. When authorities arrived, they found the 3 mentally challenged men and 1 woman locked inside and dangerously malnourished.
Police believe the 4 victims had been transported from Texas to Florida and then up to Philadelphia, and say the suspects were possibly trying to cash in on the victims’ disability checks. The 4 victims have since been hospitalized and, because of their diminished mental capacities, are having a hard time providing police with more information about them and their relationship to the suspects.
The FBI has now stepped in to investigate, as they consider the possibility that this may be part of a larger human trafficking operation.
This was just sick. I saw on CNN the three that were chained up and I gotta admit I was mad the criminals were black. Just a sad situation.