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A developmentally disabled pregnant woman with a one-year-old son was tortured and beaten to death by a social worker and the social worker's children, among others, in Alton, Illinois, about 300 miles south of here. Holy moly, is this story ever sad.
Dorothy Dixon, 29 and six months pregnant, was found dead on January 31 in the house she shared with the people accused of killing her. Michelle Riley (pictured), 35, Judy Woods, 43, Michael Elliott, 18, Benny Lee Wilson, 16, and LeShelle McBride, 15, and a 12-year-old boy have all been charged in her death, and all but Elliott lived in the same residence. Riley worked for the West Central Illinois Center for Independent Living, which helps developmentally disabled people find housing and jobs. That's where she met Dixon, who was a client. McBride and the 12-year-old are Riley's children.
According to police reports, Dixon lived in an unfinished portion of the basement, and the landlord of the property says after everyone moved out, he found a bucket of feces in Dixon's former room, a waist-high door that was nailed shut, and blood on the walls, washer, dryer and in the basement shower.
Terri Brandt, 27, said her next-door neighbors were always making a racket. She said she witnessed Riley punish Dixon by making her run naked, and that Riley would pour boiling water and use a hot glue gun on Dixon. Riley had baby monitors in all the rooms to keep tabs on everyone, Brandt said.
While neighbors and family members identify Riley as the ring-leader, police say it was Woods who hit Dixon in the head with an unidentified object. Dixon died the next day.
An autopsy revealed that Dixon died from a combination of being shot multiple times with a BB gun, scalded with hot liquids and beaten about the head and body at various times over the four-to-eight-week period before her death, Alton police Lt. David Hayes said.
Dixon's son, who weighed only 15 pounds, was taken into protective custody. Riley, Woods, Elliot, Wilson and McBride have all been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Unreal. [AP, Pantagraph, Belleville News-Democrat, mugshot via MyFox St Louis]
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HOLY FUCK! A social worker? Really?
What I don't understand about this HORRIFIC story (horrific isn't strong enough of a word) is if the neighbors saw this stuff going on, why the *&$% didn't they do something????? What is wrong with them?
According to this story, neighbor Terri Brandt saw Riley force Dixon to run naked, pour boiling water on Dixon, and use a hot glue gun on her. What the hell is wrong with Brandt? If I saw anything remotely like that going on with my neighbors, I'd call the police without hesitation. Hell, I'd call the police if a neighbor was making a constant racket (another thing Brandt says was going on). Personally, if Brandt saw that stuff and failed to report it, it seems to me she has some liability in this as well. Can't she be charged with something?
What a terrible story to come out on Good Friday, well, any day, but Good Friday especially. Christ always said that what we do to the least of us, we do to him. I've always taken that to mean that what we do to those least able to care for themselves we do to him.
I'm so outraged by this words can't begin to describe.
I know people are going to jump all over the CILs (centers for independent living), but one problem that exists is that the State pays people who provide home services for the disabled almost nothing. As of about 4 years ago, it was $7 per hour with no health insurance, no paid leave, nothing - I don't know how much they pay now, but given all the budget cuts, probably not much more. Consequently, it's hard to find good people to do this kind of work.
Dear Chicagoist:
I know it's 'news-worthy', but what percentage of your posts are Crazy-Crime stories?
@SkyHits
On the plus side, you've probably never had to deal with someone who had Seasonal Affective Disorder before.
@plumbum
Whether or not I can personally relate to this story was not my point: it was instead to express my dismay at the sheer number of similar items that Chicagoist posts daily. I suppose it would be one thing if these shocking stories were all happening in our city, but they seem to be coming from all over Illinois and sometimes Indiana as well. Often, they are stories from local mainstream media, from whom I would expect no better. I would think that Chicagoist, who I consider a valuable alternative source for information about Chicago, would not have as much pressure to run these first-on-the-scene shocker-style tales. Maybe each one can be justified individually, but for me it begins to add up to a numbing wave of violence.
@SkyHits:
If it bleeds, it leads.
"According to this story, neighbor Terri Brandt saw Riley force Dixon to run naked, pour boiling water on Dixon, and use a hot glue gun on her. What the hell is wrong with Brandt? If I saw anything remotely like that going on with my neighbors, I'd call the police without hesitation. Hell, I'd call the police if a neighbor was making a constant racket (another thing Brandt says was going on). Personally, if Brandt saw that stuff and failed to report it, it seems to me she has some liability in this as well. Can't she be charged with something?"
happygirl, SHE DID CALL THE POLICE!!!! There's more to this story:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews
/story/1CEED75405C8011F862574110013210C?OpenDocument
The St Louis website I listed here says that it was this neighbor, back in October, who indeed called the police . . . her boyfriend even tried to physically intervene. When the cops showed up, the scum made up some story about the altercation, and they arrested and hauled off to jail the neighbor who came Dorothy's defense. Police say they were never told of any abuse. Terry Brandt and her boyfriend say otherwise. The charges against him were later dropped. Did someone finally listen to him?
What I'm curious about, is how Dorothy Dixon's death even became known. I find it hard to believe that these murdering-torturing-less-than-human-pieces-of-trash would call 911 when they found her dead. I would be more inclined to think that they would conceal her death to keep the checks coming. Has anyone out there read the answer to how the authorities knew of Ms. Dixon's death?
How did developmentally disavled victim become pregnant? Isn't this an issue of consent?
Spav1
People with developmental disabilities have children all the time. There are many stages of MR/DD handicaps and consent is not usually an issue with higher functioning people. These people hold jobs, have kids, etc.
I don't know what the story behind Dixon's pregnancy is, though, and judging from the rest of her life, it seems completely plausible that her pregnancy resulted from something other than consensual sex. But please don't assume that just because someone is labeled as having a developmental disability, they're someone who can't function as an average person. Nothing could be further from the truth.
@Sky:
Dude, sorry. I meant for that comment to be in another post. Sorry for the confusion.
It's stories like this - not our fuck-up President - that make me think the world is going to hell.
The oddity that the ringleader is a white woman ensures that she makes an insanity plea. A white woman who commits a violent crime is not a violent criminal, she's depressed.