More Charges Added As Niece's Care Probed In Philadelphia 'Basement of Horror' Case
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Three of the four defendants in Philadelphia's basement captivity case are now facing additional charges, including aggravated assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's office alleges that Linda Weston, her adult daughter Jean McIntosh, and a homeless man, Eddie Wright, beat Weston's niece and kept her locked up in a bathroom closet for at least two weeks.
Days after Weston and two men were arrested for allegedly imprisoning four mentally challenged adults in a Tacony basement (see related story), they found Weston's 19-year old niece Beatrice Weston and several children in the Frankford section (another related story).
That same day, police also arrested McIntosh, Weston's 32-year-old daughter.
When police discovered Beatrice Weston, they say, she was badly beaten and malnourished. Police say she had fractures, scars, burns from a heated spoon, and pellet wounds to the ankles. The additional charges are based on the investigation as it relates to Beatrice Weston.
Meantime, a Philadelphia Family Court spokesman confirms that back in 2002, a judge had placed a young child, Beatrice Weston, in the custody of her aunt Linda, a convicted murderer. Linda Weston had spent four years in prison for starving a man to death in a closet in her North Philadelphia apartment in 1981.
At the time, the Department of Human Services and the girl's mother had recommended that Linda Weston care for Beatrice.
But police say the niece became a prisoner. Beatrice was among those rescued earlier this month in squalid conditions in the Frankford section of the city, just a few days after police discovered four mentally disabled adults in the basement of a Tacony apartment building. Documents found at the Tacony location led investigators to the other locations.
Reported by Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio 1060
