PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three people have been charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday.
Officers were investigating a report of squatters in a building Saturday when they found three men and a woman in a 15-by-15-foot room behind a steel door that was chained shut. The subbasement room they were in called to mind a Cold War-era bomb shelter and contained a makeshift bed, mattress and sheets, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.
"It was horrible," she said Sunday. "The space was very tiny and confined."
Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects were trying to make money through access to the victims' Social Security or disability checks, Little said.
Charges of criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and related offenses were filed Sunday against Linda Ann Weston, 51, and Thomas Gregory, 47, both of Philadelphia, as well as Eddie Wright, 49, officially listed as homeless but originally from Texas. Listed numbers for the defendants could not be found Sunday and it was unclear whether they had attorneys.
It wasn't clear how they know the victims.
Federal charges could also be added, Lt. Raymond Evers told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"We're going to find every crime possible in the crime code to put on these individuals," Evers said.
The 29-year-old woman and the men, who are 31, 35, and 41, have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds, police said. They were taken to a hospital for treatment and listed in stable condition. Little said the victims, whose names were not released, appeared to have no physical problems other than malnourishment.
Little said that getting information from the victims had been difficult due to their disability, but they apparently had been brought to Philadelphia about 10 days before they were found. They had apparently been in West Palm Beach, Fla., and before that in Texas, she said.
"It's heartbreaking that people can do such horrifying things to other people," she said.
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