Neighbors Often Saw Handicapped Victims Injured - WPBF West Palm Beach

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Former West Palm Beach neighbors of four mentally handicapped adults found chained together inside a locked basement in Philadelphia said they often saw bruises and other injuries on them.As recently as August, the victims and seven children lived under the care of Linda Weston, her boyfriend, Thomas Gregory, and another man, Eddie Wright, at a dilapidated house on 52nd Street. All three were arrested and charged with kidnapping in Philadelphia.The house in West Palm Beach is now in tatters. Windows are broken and boarded, what appears to be feces and urine are smeared on the walls inside, and a dirty syringe lies in the front yard. "They didn't care at all," said a neighbor who identified herself only as Mary. "They fight all through the night. You hear banging all through the night."Ronald Bass said he heard screams and gunshots coming from the house and saw residents with injuries.Sadie Polland, who was a friend of some of the victims, said she saw bruised faces and battered hands. "Oh, they was cruel to them people -- to them girls," Polland said. "They had them fighting each other, bruising up each other."Philadelphia police said they found the victims chained to a water heater and malnourished."When you look at the conditions under which they were kept, I mean, it's just something out of a dungeon," Philadelphia police Lt. Ray Evers said.Authorities said Weston spent eight years in prison for locking a man in her closet in the 1980s, starving him to death.The FBI is investigating whether this is part of a larger human trafficking ring. Investigators believe the suspects may have been cashing the victims' disability checks.Philadelphia police said they've been searching for several children since the four malnourished adults were found.Family members of missing 15-year-old Benita Rodriguez said the girl was friends with the children who lived in the house on 52nd Street.Rodriguez disappeared on July 4. Family members said Monday night that she has been found alive.The Rodriguez family had hoped that the findings in Philadelphia might shed some light on their case.