E/C Annie wrote:
> A sad, pathetic story of what "humans" can do.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2t86hh
>
> A photo released Thursday, March 13, 2008, by the Alton, Ill. police
> department shows Dorothy Dixon, 29, of Alton, a 29-year-old pregnant,
> developmentally disabled woman who was found killed Jan. 31, 2008,
> after being beaten, shot with a BB gun and scalded with hot liquid,
> according to police. Six people have been charged with first-degree
> murder, battery and unlawful restraint in the killing. (AP Photo/
> Alton, Ill. Police Department)
> Related News
>
>
>
> ALTON, Ill. (AP) -- Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother
> with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than
> a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete
> floor.
>
> Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator
> upstairs, where prosecutors say housemates used her for target
> practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with
> scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.
>
> They torched what few clothes she had, authorities say, so she walked
> around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal
> handle.
>
> Dixon -- six months pregnant -- died after weeks of abuse. Police have
> charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder
> in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.
>
> "This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost
> as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering.
> This woman was almost like living in a prison."
>
> Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they
> said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she
> got because of her developmental delays.
>
> Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she
> weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her
> year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody
> after his mom's death.
>
> "I've never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people
> to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not
> really show any remorse," Hayes said. "It was just a slow, torturous,
> tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was
> dying."
>
> Riley, 43-year-old Judy Woods and three teenagers, including Riley's
> 15-year-old daughter, LeShelle McBride, are charged with first-degree
> murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an
> unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Riley's 12-year-old son is
> charged as a juvenile.
>
> Riley, her daughter, Woods and 16-year-old Benny Wilson have public
> defenders who did not immediately return messages for comment. An 18-
> year-old defendant, Michael Elliott, planned to get his own attorney,
> court records show.
>
> All remain in jail on $1 million bond.
>
> Messages left with a Chicago-area sister of Dixon went unreturned, but
> neighbors, Hayes and newspaper accounts offer a mosaic of the months
> leading to Dixon's demise inside the small, white, blue-shuttered
> house.
>
> Riley and Dixon, police said, had lived in Quincy, a Mississippi River
> town about 100 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. Quincy is where Riley
> worked as a coordinator for a regional center that helps the
> developmentally disabled with housing and other services. Dixon was a
> client.
>
> For years, an impoverished Riley struggled raising her children. Her
> use of methamphetamine and cocaine brought drug convictions in 2002
> and 2004. But with treatment and housing help from the Quincy YWCA,
> Riley put her life in order -- so much that in February of last year,
> the Quincy Herald-Whig did a story on her comeback.
>
> Last summer, Dixon and Riley moved into the $800-a-month, three-
> bedroom rental in Alton about 15 miles north of St. Louis. From the
> start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley
> trouble.
>
> "Michelle was evil, vindictive. Manipulative," said Hudson, convinced
> the teenagers were Riley's powerless minions.
>
> "She was angry, vicious," added Brandt.
>
> Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley's feet until
> Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when
> she got in trouble, the neighbors said.
>
> "Being in their house was like being in a prison day room," Hudson
> said. "They just sat around the kitchen table and fought."
>
> There was little question that Riley ruled the roost.
>
> While doing fix-ups on the home last fall, landlord Steve Atkins saw
> Riley "barking orders" at the children and everyone else. Atkins joked
> to her whether he needed to call the Army and see if they wanted their
> drill sergeant back.
>
> "She didn't laugh about it at all," Atkins said. "Obviously, I hit a
> nerve."
>
> Atkins said Dixon generally kept to herself "but was always nice when
> she spoke to you." He saw no hints she'd been suffering or tortured.
>
> "I would have never, ever suspected something like this," he said.
> "It's definitely shocking."
>
> Police said Dixon was allowed out of the house but didn't say under
> what conditions. Hayes didn't know who the father of Dixon's fetus is.
>
> Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when
> investigators believe that Woods, during a dispute, beat Dixon on the
> head with an object Hayes wouldn't identify. The next day Woods found
> her dead.
>
> Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays
> revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about
> one-third of her body -- her face, her chest, her arms and feet -- and
> left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of
> prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.
>
> None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her
> system already was taxed by her unborn baby.
>
> "The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he
> said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."
>
> In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in
> a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.
>
> "It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this
> girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's
> just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame."
> Hosted by Google
> Copyright (c) 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
