Alright You West Virginians, An Explanation Please

Details Emerge In West Virginia Torture Case

(CBS News) BIG CREEK, W.Va. Six people have been arrested in West Virginia coal country for the week-long torture of a young woman. Six people, all white, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the black woman. Authorities are investigating the case as a possible hate crime.

Authorities said Megan Williams, 20, was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from a toilet. She was sexually assaulted, doused with hot water, choked with a cable cord and stabbed in the leg, according to criminal complaints.

"I've been in law enforcement for over 30 years. This is far and away the most horrendous thing I have ever seen," said Logan County Sheriff Eddie Hunter.

"Something like this is so horrifying it makes you want to puke," Magistrate Leonard Codispoti, who set bond at $100,000 for each of the suspects, told The Logan Banner.

On Tuesday, police tape surrounded the front and back entrances to the beige-and-brown mobile home adjacent to the shed. An open window revealing purple curtains. An extension cord runs from the home to the cramped shed, which Williams shared with a portable stereo, a locker and a power saw.

"I don't understand such a horrific crime being committed here," said Johnny Meade, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God in the Name of Christ Jesus.

Two others suspected of driving the woman to the home are being sought, said Logan County Chief Sheriff's Deputy V.K. Dingess. Authorities are still trying to determine whether Williams knew the suspects. She may have met them on the Internet. One report says she had visited the home before.

Williams also may be mentally retarded. Her father says she has taken special education classes; her mother said she has "mental issues."

"She has a history of kind of drifting off every once in awhile, and so I just thought she was just running around town," her mother, Carmen Williams, told CBS affiliate WOWK.

At one point, one of her captors cut her ankle with a knife and used the N-word in telling her she was victimized because she is black.

"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter's hospital room. "I didn't know there were people like that out here."

News organizations don't usually release the names of victims of sexual abuse, but in this case, Megan's mother says she wants people to know the horror that was done to her daughter, reports CBS News correspondent Susan McGinnis.

"I want other parents and other mothers to realize, I guess, that people are out there like that, keep a close eye on their children. You never think it would happen to your child. Obviously, I never thought that, but here we are," Carmen Williams told WOWK.

The ordeal ended Saturday when she managed to limp to the front door of the trailer, where Logan County Sheriff's deputies had gone to investigate an anonymous tip.

"She came to the door with her hands out, crying 'help me,'" said Hunter. "She had two black eyes, part of her hair had been pulled out, she had lacerations on her legs, marks on her neck, and she had been physically, mentally and sexually abused. It's out of a horror movie."

Williams' most severe injuries are a fractured arm and a deep stab wound to her leg, reports WOWK's Sara Garvin.

Frankie Brewster, 49, who owns the mobile home, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and giving false information during a felony investigation.

She was released from prison in September 2000 after serving five years for voluntary manslaughter and wanton endangerment in the death of 84-year-old Polly Ferrell, according to court records.

Brewster's son, Bobby R. Brewster, 24, also of Big Creek, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.

Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, is charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding. Karen Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, is charged with malicious wounding, battery and assault during the commission of a felony.

Her daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, of Chapmanville, and George A. Messer, 27, of Chapmanville, are charged with assault during the commission of a felony and battery.

In May, Alisha Burton was accused of striking Messer with a shovel and smashing the window of another woman's car. Burton was charged with domestic assault and battery and destruction of property, court records showed. Those charges are pending.