Sunday, July 22, 2007

Woman charged with keeping 9 starving people in home

Police in Port St. Lucie, Florida, are trying to find out the identities of nine people found living with a 62-year-old woman in what officials described as deplorable conditions.

Capt. Scott Bartal with the Port St. Lucie Police Department said Judith Leekin kept five mentally disabled adults and four teenagers captive in her Southwest Hawthorne Drive home.

"There were claims by people in that house that they were locked in there, and they were bound with handcuff ties," Bartal said.

Bartal said the captives were malnourished and handcuffed together when Leekin left the home. He said some of the teens, ages 15 to 17, had scars on their backs and burn marks on their bodies.

As to the reason for the alleged abuse, Bartal said that it appeared Leekin was making a large sum of money by caring for the group.

"It appears, on the surface, that this was done for profit".

With news video.

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