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Details emerge in W.Va. torture case (Warning - Graphic Violence)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/11/07 | John Raby and Tom Breen - ap

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: details; disgusting; emerge; rape; torture; violence; westvirginia
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To: Anti-Bubba182
Murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom

Yepper, folks have forgotten this one just like the guys who tortured, raped the young fella in Arkansas.....BUT,,we all know what the MSM wants us to believe, don't we?

61 posted on 09/12/2007 6:34:57 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory tooooo long)
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To: Scotswife
"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."

That makes sense, and sadly it fits with the story here.

62 posted on 09/12/2007 6:57:55 AM PDT by KoRn (Just Say NO ....To Liberal Republicans - FRED THOMPSON FOR PRESIDENT!)
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To: xJones
The arrested suspects actually told the deputies that they forced the victim to eat rat crap and dog feces?

Odd, you'd think that bunch would be pretty familiar with the Miranda warning.

The entire story reads like an episode of The X-Files.

63 posted on 09/12/2007 7:09:38 AM PDT by Charles Martel (The Tree of Liberty thirsts.)
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To: KoRn

a bunch of methheads broke into my friends car.
The car was at a park where she was jogging.

While the police were investigating the break in at the pard, the methheads were at her house ransacking the place.

When the police responded to the scene at the house, the methheads were going all over town using her credit cards.
They got info about her business and clients from the computer they stole and proceeded to steal the identities of dozens of people.

The police finally caught up with them when they came down from their 5 day long meth fueled frenzy.
They were zonked out in their apartment.


64 posted on 09/12/2007 7:09:43 AM PDT by Scotswife
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To: pandoraou812

Oxycoton by prescription was big in WV, years ago. I haven’t been there for any length of time lately to know if it still is.


65 posted on 09/12/2007 7:12:31 AM PDT by quikdrw (Life is tough....it's even tougher if you are stupid.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Well, if having the Feds involved means these people never see the light of day if convicted, for once I’m all for hate crimes legislation. Anything to keep them in jail for the rest of their lives.


66 posted on 09/12/2007 7:20:18 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: NormsRevenge

67 posted on 09/12/2007 7:37:45 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Ron Paul put the cuckoo in my Cocoa Puffs)
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To: Charles Martel
The entire story reads like an episode of The X-Files.

If it's true I'll be the first in line to yell, "Hang 'em high!", but something about this doesn't pass the smell test.

68 posted on 09/12/2007 7:50:08 AM PDT by xJones
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To: NormsRevenge

Shallow end of the gene pool?


69 posted on 09/12/2007 7:56:48 AM PDT by RedEyeJack
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To: Armedanddangerous
A bunch for freakin inbred cracker Deliverance extras...All they need is a banjo and a bunch of canoes.

Don't forget the pig. Soooo--eeey!!

70 posted on 09/12/2007 8:13:29 AM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (After six years of George W. Bush I long for the honesty and sincerity of the Clinton Administration)
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To: Scotswife

My grandfather owned a dairy farm and then converted it to raise and sell cattle when the milk trucks quit coming across the mountain from VA. Yeah there are meth heads and the weed growers. My wife’s sister’s husband was a stay at home dad (a.k.a pot grower). We all thought he was just lazy we had no idea that he was working under the table as a ‘farmer’! What really makes me sick is there are whole families that have managed to get disability. I have no idea when laziness became a disability but that is one development I am not proud of that is far too common in the country.


71 posted on 09/12/2007 8:19:18 AM PDT by Maelstorm (Understanding the motivations of a victimizer does not exonerate or justify them.)
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To: leenie312
It’s a shame when someone makes such a broad unfair and judgmental statement.


"Ah, humor. It is a difficult concept. It is often illogical"
--Lt. Savak

72 posted on 09/12/2007 8:20:25 AM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (After six years of George W. Bush I long for the honesty and sincerity of the Clinton Administration)
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To: leenie312; keat

Lighten up Francis.


73 posted on 09/12/2007 11:02:09 AM PDT by NucSubs (Rudy Giuliani 2008! Our liberal democrat is better than theirs!)
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To: NormsRevenge

“all have asked for court-appointed attorneys.”

Good. You’ll get the incompetent representation you deserve.


74 posted on 09/12/2007 2:37:53 PM PDT by gcruse (...now I have to feed the dog as if nothing has happened.)
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To: wardaddy

“I hereby bet my life that this story will get more traction than Wichita...”

Given the fact that Wichita got NO traction, that’s a safe bet.


75 posted on 09/12/2007 2:39:20 PM PDT by gcruse (...now I have to feed the dog as if nothing has happened.)
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To: gcruse

FOX is all over this WVA story right now...


76 posted on 09/12/2007 4:29:43 PM PDT by wardaddy (the future of the West is bleak)
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To: Anti-Bubba182

sickening isn’t it?

whites have lost their courage...they are just as soft as ghetto hoods claim they are


77 posted on 09/12/2007 4:31:21 PM PDT by wardaddy (the future of the West is bleak)
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