How an American woman kidnapped and held captive disabled people for 10 years, appropriating their benefits

When a homeowner broke down a basement door in Philadelphia, he was almost suffocated by the terrible stench of feces, sweat and urine. But what he found inside was even scarier. It turned out that four disabled people were being held in a cramped room. They were regularly beaten, drugged and tortured. Later, investigators found out that this is just the tip of the iceberg of a criminal gang led by Linda Ann Weston (Linda Ann Weston), who kidnapped people with mental retardation and appropriated their cash benefits for ten years.

In the basement of their private house (in a room of 5 by 5 meters), four mentally retarded people were found – a man and three women. The attackers practically did not feed them. The age of the prisoners is from 29 to 41 years. The mental development of most of the abducted disabled people was at the level of a 10-year-old child. More than ten years have passed since then, but they have not forgotten what they had to go through. 

It is suspected that over the years, at least fifty people have become victims of the criminal and her accomplices. The main motive for kidnapping disabled people was their allowance. During the years of crimes, Linda Ann Weston, along with her daughter Jean McIntosh, embezzled $ 200,000 (about 15.2 million rubles). 

They followed the victims and tried to choose people who did not keep in touch with their relatives. The attackers then urged the disabled to move in with Weston, who promised to take care of them as a mother. The fraudster told everyone that she would take care of them and provide them with everything they needed.

One of the victims, Tamara Breeden, was 29 years old at the time of the abduction. The unfortunate woman was held captive for ten years. The girl was forced into prostitution, and during this time she gave birth to two children in terrible conditions. She was tricked into taking a job as a nanny. As a result, the American woman was chained up in a dark basement and regularly beaten with a metal bat.

Among those rescued from captivity were Tamara's boyfriend Edwin Sanabria (Edwin Sanabria), as well as Derwin McLemire (Derwin McLemire) and Herbert Knowles (Herbert Knowles). The victim of Linda Weston was even her niece, Beatrice Weston (Beatrice Weston). Brothers and sisters of the cruel criminal told how as a child she bullied them and forced them to eat cockroaches.

The conditions in which the disabled people were placed were terrible. They were locked in basements, toilets and attics, chained up. The victims were constantly beaten, shot at with a traumatic pistol, forced to drink urine, drugged and forced to engage in prostitution.

During the activity of the group, three people died at the hands of criminals. Donna Spadea was found dead in a basement in Philadelphia in 2005, and Maxine Lee died of meningitis and starvation in 2008 while locked in an attic in Virginia. It turned out that Linda Weston had previously served a sentence for driving 25-year-old Bernardo Ramos, her sister's boyfriend, to death. Linda locked him in the closet for two months and only fed him a few times during that time. As a result, the man died of exhaustion, having lost up to 34 kg.

The gang's misdeeds came to an end in 2011, when an unsuspecting homeowner found four disabled people in his basement and called the police. In 2015, Linda Ann Weston was sentenced to life in prison. She was charged with 196 crimes. 

Linda Weston had previously served an eight-year sentence. In 1981, she locked 25-year – old Bernardo Ramos in a closet and starved him to death-he refused to support her sister's child, who was due to be born soon

Weston's daughter, Jean McIntosh, was jailed for 40 years for aiding and abetting the kidnapping, torture, and enslavement of people. Their accomplice Eddie Wright was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Most of the victims managed to survive. Now they can go out without fear, work and be close to their relatives. 

There is nothing worse than the torment of a man who is being held captive. John Djamelske hid the abducted teenage girls underground for years, regularly raping them.