Posted on 09/11/2007 8:41:29 PM PDT by 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.
As far as the murder of Channon and Christopher, I guess getting burned alive or gang raped doesn’t meet the criteria for “torture”. I read about a parliament member in Britain who was driven from his seat because he pursued justice for a white kid who was burned alive by a Muslim. It’s definitely a double-standard. I still feel sorry for the girl, though.
They could be on Oxycoton, too.
Only protected groups can be victims of hate crimes in the view of the media and apparently most prosecutors.
Note the AP will never question the political climate of a state that elects a former high-ranking Klansman to the U.S. Senate... of course, if this was South Carolina, Texas or Mississippi (with GOP Senators and Governors), well you remember the political lynching they did to Dubya when that Black guy was dragged behind a truck.
You are 100 percent absolutely right.
I commented in another thread about this crime that there were no political ramifications, because depraved animals exist in both political parties, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an institutional bias in lamestream media when covering such stories. If perchance, Robert KKK Byrd was a Republican, you can bet the media would be playing up the ‘Grand Kleagle’ angle 24/7 regarding the horrifying assault on this girl.
A fitting punishment for these animals would be for them to get dropped off in the middle of the night in Harlem, with prior announcement of their arrival of course.
Doubtful. For one, Oxycontin is way to expensive for those types, and it tends to make the end user somewhat happy and mellowed out.
why?....there was no murder......why punish these hillbillies/meth heads more than most murders get....
True, Oxycoton makes sense. I just think meth or crack because of the sunken look to the faces. I hadn’t even thought of oxycoton. Really horrible things to have done no matter what they were on. I doubt this girl would be alive except for the tip call.
It really is a shame that a whole family could be such monsters. I truly hope there aren’t children in this clan. Prayers for the victim & her family.
It's called "original sin". Or "total depravity" (if your theology turns that way). Cases like this illustrate the truth of that doctrine. Humans, bereft of Grace, are capable of far worse than bestial behaviour. Man, made in the "image and likeness of God" and "little less than the angels", with the aid of Grace is capable of great holiness and virtue. When Man turns from Grace, the result is demonic. As in this case.
I agree....the photos look like a “Faces of Meth” poster.
Yes they sure do...
drop them off at a black panther covention
Sheesh. I can hear "Dueling Banjos" in the background.
“Exactly. I hear the worst ignorant crap from people who think they are better than people who live in the country. Where I come from people build their own houses, grow their own vegetables, and raise their own chickens and beef. “
Yes...I live in dairy farm country.
Unfortuately the meth-heads have decided that moving out to the country is a good way to evade police.
They were wrong, the police find them out here just the same, because families like us who lived here first are quite aware of what they are cooking in their back shed.
These bozos have meth written all over them.
“Doubtful. For one, Oxycontin is way to expensive for those types, and it tends to make the end user somewhat happy and mellowed out.”
exactly...and meth would explain why they didn’t lose interest in their entertaining activities even after a week.
Some meth-heads have reported going days without wanting to sleep.
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