UPDATE: Mentally Challenged Adults Chained in Basement
TACONY (NE-Philadelphia)- October 16, 2011 (WPVI) -- Chained like animals and locked behind a subbasement door, police found four mentally challenged adults wasting away in an apartment building.
"This case just makes you shake your head; I it's despicable and unspeakable," Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said.
Late Saturday night, police told Action News how three men and a woman ranging from ages 29 to 41 were discovered in the subbasement of an apartment building on Longshore Avenue in the Tacony section of Northeast Philadelphia.
They were malnourished with bedsores and surrounded by deplorable conditions and two dogs.
"When you look at the conditions under which they were kept, it's something out of a dungeon actually," Ross said.
The victims were freed from their 15 foot by 15 foot prison and treated at a hospital.
Detectives went on the hunt for the people who held them captive and uncovered a human trafficking case which possibly started in Texas, made a stop in Florida, and ended up here.
Police believe the caregivers only took in the mentally disabled victims to get a hold of their social security checks.
Three people have been arrested, two men and a 50-year-old woman who is being called the ring leader.
"They'll be charged with pretty much everything we can find in the crime's code, from aggravated assault to kidnapping to false imprisonment, you name it, we're going to stick it on them," Philadelphia Police Lt. Ray Evers said.
Investigators believe the victims were put into that small room about 10 days ago when they were moved from Florida.
Rob Hoey lives in the building and never heard a thing.
"I work with people like that for years and I have a soft spot for people who are mentally challenged, so that's the thing that hurts the most," Hoey said.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has ordered his officers to continue holding that scene on Longshore Avenue. Several city agencies are now involved in this case and the FBI has also been called in.
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