On October 17, 2011, a basement in a seven unit apartment building in Northeast Philadephia, Pennsylvania was found to contain four people, being held against their will, in conditions of deprivation. The owner of the building discovered their presence after investigating suspicious activity in the basement area. Three people were arrested as initial suspects in the Philadelphia basement kidnapping: Linda Weston, Gregory Thomas and Eddie Wright. A fourth person, Jean McIntosh, the daughter of Weston, was arrested on October 19. Ten people, including six children, were taken into custody on October 18 in connection with the discovery. A niece of Weston's, Beatrice Weston, 19, was among them, and was found to be malnourished and suffering from multiple wounds. She had been reported missing in 2009. A Police investigator stated he had never seen such signs of abuse on a living person. An investigation by the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department is currently underway to determine if the suspects were part of a larger multi-state kidnapping scheme, as identifying papers of at least 50 other people were found in the initial search. Evidence so far suggests that people had been held for collection of their Social Security Disability benefits, as the four people initially found were mentally disabled.
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Weston had previously been sentenced eight years in prison for starving a man to death after he refused to support Weston's sister's unborn child. She served four years of her sentence.[1]She had been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia at the time. Records show a person living with Weston in 2008 died that year, from what was at the time listed as natural causes. The person's family has asked that her death be reexamined.
The event has received national and international attention, and raised awareness of the issue of the potential abuse of mentally disabled people for their benefits through the representative payee process.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]