PHILADELPHIA — Police took two more children into protective custody Wednesday, another step in an intense investigation of four people accused of locking disabled adults in a squalid basement as part of a Social Security fraud scheme.
The case could be among the first of its kind prosecuted as a federal hate crime, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is named for two victims of notorious hate-based killings and expands earlier federal hate-crimes law to include sexual orientation or disability, among other things.
Meanwhile, police in Virginia confirmed they investigated the 2008 death of a woman living with Linda Ann Weston, who’s accused of being the ringleader in the Philadelphia basement case and who cleared out of the Norfolk home hours after calling police about the death. A Virginia death certificate said 39-year-old Maxine Lee died of meningitis but also suffered from a wasting disease.
In Philadelphia, police told reporters that a malnourished teenage niece living with Wes ton had marks suggesting she was burned with a hot spoon and had pellet-gun wounds.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before in a living person. It is just remarkable that she is alive,” police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said of Beatrice Weston.
In all, eight juveniles and four young adults from ages 2 to 19 linked to the case have been taken into protective custody.
Police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers said authorities are conducting DNA tests and obtaining birth certificates to try to determine the nature of the various relationships.
Earlier Wednesday, a fourth suspect, Jean McIntosh, 32, the daughter of Linda Weston, was arrested by police. She, along with Weston, Gregory Thomas, 47, and Eddie “the Reverent Ed” Wright, 50, have been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment and other charges.
None of the four could be reached for comment.
Landlord Turgut Gozleveli discovered the victims after he heard dogs barking in the basement. The door to the basement room was chained shut, but Gozleveli got inside and found four disabled adults. One man was chained to the boiler.
Ramsey said the case has multiple threads in multiple jurisdictions.
“This is unfolding,” he said. “These are folks who have gone through an awful lot.”
