Details emerge in W.Va. torture case (Warning - Graphic Violence)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/11/07 | John Raby and Tom Breen - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BIG CREEK, W.Va. - For at least a week, authorities say, a young black woman was held captive in a mobile home, forced to eat animal waste, stabbed, choked and repeatedly sexually abused — all while being peppered with a racial slur.

It wasn't until deputies acting on an anonymous tip drove to a ramshackle trailer deep in West Virginia's rural hills that she was found. Limping toward the door with her arms outstretched, she uttered, "Help me," the Logan County sheriff's office said.

Six people, all white, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter, have been arrested and could face federal hate crime charges in the suspected attack on 20-year-old Megan Williams, who remained hospitalized Tuesday with injuries that included four stab wounds in the leg, and black and blue eyes. Her right arm was in a cast.

"I'm better," Williams told The Associated Press in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from the Charleston Area Medical Center. "I didn't know there were people like that out here."

The AP generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name.

A prosecutor said police are investigating the possibility that the victim was lured to the house and attacked by a man she had met online, but Carmen Williams insisted that wasn't the case. "This wasn't from the Internet," she said.

Authorities were still looking for two people they believe drove the woman to the house where she was abused, said Logan County Chief Deputy V.K. Dingess. Deputies also interviewed Williams on Tuesday morning. An FBI spokesman in Pittsburgh, Bill Crowley, confirmed that the agency is looking into possible civil rights violations.

The case is "something that would have come out of a horror movie," Logan County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.

The home is in a forlorn part of Logan County about 50 miles southwest of Charleston, where the scattered homes are marked by "No Trespassing" signs. An old shed linked to a mobile home by an extension cord is what authorities say became a hellish prison for Williams.

Deputies found her when they drove to the home on Saturday after receiving an anonymous tip from someone who witnessed the abuse, officials said.

The woman was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from a toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court based on what the suspects told deputies. She also had been choked with a cord, it alleges. Deputies say the woman was also doused with hot water while being sexually assaulted.

One of those arrested, Karen Burton, is accused of cutting the woman's ankle with a knife. She used the N-word in telling the woman she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaint.

Carmen Williams said doctors told her daughter she may be well enough to leave the hospital within a few days, although a nurse said the young woman's condition was listed as "under evaluation."

"I just want my daughter to be well and recover," Carmen Williams said. "I know the Lord can do anything."

The six suspects were arrested Saturday and Sunday. Frankie Brewster, the 49-year-old woman who owns the home where the suspected attacks occurred, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and giving false information during a felony investigation.

Her son, Bobby R. Brewster, 24, also of Big Creek, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.

Frankie Brewster was released from prison in September 2000 after serving five years for voluntary manslaughter and wanton endangerment in the death of an 84-year-old woman, according to court records.

Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, is charged with malicious wounding, battery and assault during the commission of a felony.

Her daughter Alisha Burton, 23, of Chapmanville, and George A. Messer, 27, of Chapmanville, are charged with assault during the commission of a felony and battery.

Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, is charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding.

All six remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $100,000 bail each, and all have asked for court-appointed attorneys.

___

Tom Breen reported from Charleston, W.Va.

[thefactor]

if true, hang these "people."

i want to know why she was at the house. was it a drug house? did she know them? not that it matters but there is usually more to stories like these.

jesse and al should be enroute.

[farlander]

Jesus Christ. What is wrong with some people ?

[fieldmarshaldj]

"For at least a week, authorities say, a young black woman was held captive in a mobile home, forced to eat animal waste, stabbed, choked and repeatedly sexually abused — all while being peppered with a racial slur."

Take a guess what the AP considers the worst offense.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Senator Byrd’s fault?

[NormsRevenge]

Pictured on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007, is the mobile home, left, and tool shed at Big Creek, W.Va., where authorities say 20-year-old Charleston, W.Va., resident Megan Williams, a black woman, was allegedly abducted, held captive for at least a week and tortured by six white individuals from Logan County, W.Va. Authorities said Tuesday they are considering hate crime charges in the woman's case. They are investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she met on the Internet. (AP Photo/Michael Browning)

[Anti-Bubba182]

"...could face federal hate crime charges..."

Murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom

"..Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said that there is no indication the crimes were racially motivated, and that the murders and assault "appears to have been a random violent act."[16] "There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Atty. Randy Nichols. "We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialized with white people, dated white people. So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there's evidence to the contrary." [17] Some commentators, including Newsom's parents, disagree, claiming that such a crime would require a motive of racial hate. [17].."

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Isn’t that Den. Robert Byrd’s territory, ex Keeglre of the Klan?

[wardaddy]

I hereby bet my life that this story will get more traction than Wichita or Knoxville. i thought West Virginia was pretty much crackerland

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Isn;tquo;t that dem. Sen. Robert Byrd’s territory, ex Kleglre of the Klan?

[pandoraou812]

Frankie Brewster was released from prison in September 2000 after serving five years for voluntary manslaughter and wanton endangerment in the death of an 84-year-old woman, according to court records.

This tells what she was like doesn't it? IMHO just kill her and her d@mned spawns. Painfully would suit me just fine.

Prayers for the victim & her family.

[Sci Fi Guy]

if true, hang these "people."

Or just put them in the all black wing of the prison. And save the state the legal fee of a hanging.

[xJones]

The woman was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from a toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court based on what the suspects told deputies. She also had been choked with a cord, it alleges. Deputies say the woman was also doused with hot water while being sexually assaulted.

The arrested suspects actually told the deputies that they forced the victim to eat rat crap and dog feces? If true, they are demented monsters, but we need more information here.

[Ciexyz]

I wonder why the woman was driven to this rural home in the first place. More info needed on the total picture. Drugs and prostitution maybe? In any case, the perps will go thru hell when they go to prison.

[NormsRevenge]

Charleston Gazette

6 arrested, charged in woman's weeklong torture
Authorities believe racism played role in ordeal

[Scotswife]

meth....definitely meth.

[spetznaz]

Nothing against WV (never been there), but in 2003 a pastor from the state came by to the church i used to go to for some mission-oriented thing, and while there were some people from my church going there he told me it wouldn’t be prudent for me to go there. Why? Well, he said that even in his Church there were some people who ‘still believed in the old ways.’ That pretty much sealed that area for me.

[Armedanddangerous]

From what I understand from the news reports Ive heard here locally, she was lured to there from an Internet chat room.

Our sister newspaper is working this case hard.

I live about 15 miles north of there on U.S.119.

I drove by there tonight, and the TV trucks are still sitting across the road like something is going to happen.

[o_zarkman44]

White violence on black is a hanging offense.
CNN

[NormsRevenge]

Charleston Daily Mail

Video: FBI enters case of ghastly abuse