Pennsylvania woman charged with keeping sister, 53, in wooden cage with ‘dirty’ mattress, officials say

A Pennsylvania woman was charged earlier this month with imprisoning her sister inside a wooden cage with only a “dirty” mattress and almost no medical care, officials said.

Leona Biser, 51, had claimed she was caring for her 53-year-old sister, Loretta Lancaster, when authorities found her in a “man-made” cage in the living room of Biser’s “deplorable” home in Washington County on Jan. 15, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said in a news release.

“This defendant professed to be caring for her sister when, in fact, the home was in deplorable condition, had no running water, and the victim was not getting her prescribed medicines,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

Investigators said they found Lancaster "disheveled" and wearing "extremely dirty clothes," WPXI-TV reported. A baby bottle containing what appeared to be milk was also found in the cage, officials said.

Leona Biser kept her sister in a cage with only a dirty mattress and almost no medical care, officials said. (Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General)

Biser was charged with neglect of a care dependent person, abuse of a care dependent person, recklessly endangering another person, unlawful restraint, and false imprisonment. She appeared in court Friday, the station reported.

Lancaster suffered from a urinary tract infection and Rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle that can be caused by infection, when she was taken from the home, officials said. She was treated at a hospital, where officials said her condition is improving.

Authorities had been working to help Lancaster, who family members say had the mental capacity of an infant, for at least three months, according to documents obtained by the station.

An arrest warrant said an agent with Adult Protective Services first visited Biser’s home on Aug. 19 and discovered Lancaster “locked in a wooden cage,” the station reported. The agent worked to get guardianship of Lancaster but did not return to the home until Nov. 1.

The Attorney General’s Office did not become involved until Nov. 22, when agents took Lancaster from the home in an ambulance to get treatment at a hospital, the warrant said.

“We fight to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” Shapiro said in the news release. “And our agents have made sure the victim has received needed care and will no longer have to suffer daily living in a cage.”

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Pennsylvania woman charged with keeping sister, 53, in wooden cage with ‘dirty’ mattress, officials say

Couple held 70-year-old woman in a dog kennel and stole her disability money, Texas cops say

Leonnia Darlene Castillo and Tommy Lee Anderson

The string of alleged abuse reads like a torture scene in a prisoner-of-war movie.

Police in the tiny East Texas town of Malakoff, about 78 miles southeast of Dallas, say that one couple there put a 70-year-old woman through all of it, over the course of eight months.

The victim, who is a relative of 47-year-old Leonnia Darlene Anderson Castillo, had been living with her and Tommy Anderson, 49, since January, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by McClatchy.

Over the course of the last eight months, the woman told police, Anderson and Castillo periodically locked her inside a dog kennel, threw glass bottles at her and stripped her down to her underwear before forcing her walk on the glass shards, according to the affidavit. The allegations were first reported by KLTV. 

She said that Anderson “coerced” her into buying the dog kennel, then forced her to stay outside in the heat until she vomited. When she did, the affidavit states, her punishment was getting locked inside.

While she was trapped inside the kennel, the couple didn’t buy her any food, she said. Instead, according to the affidavit, the victim accused the couple of keeping her debit card from her, and using it to withdraw money from her bank account when her disability payments came in.

Over the course of the eight months she lived with the couple, the woman also accused Castillo of trying to drown her in a bathtub in Anderson’s home.

When other family members tried to intervene and come get the woman from the house on Wesley Street, “Castillo wouldn’t let it happen,” the affidavit states.

Last week, though, two family members from the Dallas area succeeded, according to the affidavit. They took the victim to Mesquite to live with other family on Wednesday, it states.

Police interviewed the victim the same day, where police officers noted “a bruised left eye, and apparent hand print on her left arm, numerous red circular sores on her back and cuts on her feet,” according to the affidavit.

Arrest warrants for Castillo and Anderson were issued on Friday, and the couple was booked into jail on Saturday. Castillo has been charged with injury to the elderly, with a $50,000 bond, while Anderson is charged with unlawful restraint, with a $15,000 bond, according to jail records.

Anderson bonded out of jail on Monday, and Castillo was bonded out Tuesday, according to Jennifer Carmon, clerk for the Henderson County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5. Malakoff Police Chief Floyd Thomas would not comment on the case any further Tuesday, telling McClatchy that the investigation was still ongoing.

 more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article217470300.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article217470300.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article217470300.html#storylink=cpy

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Couple held 70-year-old woman in a dog kennel and stole her disability money, Texas cops say