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MIAMI - A Florida woman suspected of starving and imprisoning at least eight people she had adopted as children and collected more than US$2 million ($2.64 million) to take care of has been charged with aggravated abuse.
Police found four teenagers and four disabled adults hiding in the Port St Lucie home of Judith Leekin last month.
They described them as malnourished with scars on their wrists from being handcuffed together with plastic twist-ties and said none had seen a dentist or doctor or attended school in years.
Florida authorities charged Leekin, 62, with four counts of aggravated child abuse, four counts of aggravated abuse of disabled adults, witness tampering and possessing a fictitious drivers license.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment but told local media additional charges were pending.
The eight victims were among 11 people Leekin adopted as children from New York City's foster care system between 1993 and 1996.
She continued to collect subsidy payments of up to US$55 a day to care for them after moving to the southeast Florida city of Port St Lucie, the Palm Beach Post reported.
"I think all of us were amazed just how devious this whole thing was," the newspaper quoted Port St Lucie Police Capt Scott Bartal as saying.
Police went to her home after an 18-year-old woman who was left at a grocery store told them she had been abandoned by her adoptive mother. She told investigators she and her siblings had been forced to sleep on a tile floor, often cuffed together, and were not allowed to use the bathroom.
One of them was blind and another was unable to walk. Most were not educated beyond a fourth-grade level, police said.
A 10th adoptee, a 19-year-old man, left the home two years ago but police said Leekin was still collecting money to take care of him. The 11th adoptee, now 18, was missing.
- REUTERS
