Perpetrators are white & victim is black; Woman tortured for at least a week

bana2166 · Published by bana2166- 09-10-07

Woman tortured for at least a week, officials say

* Story Highlights

* Six West Virginians charged with kidnapping, torture and sexual assault

* Logan County Sheriff Department answered anonymous tip Saturday

* Tip directed authorities to house where they found woman with stab wounds

* She limped toward the door with her arms held out, saying, "Help me."

(CNN) -- Six West Virginia residents have been charged with kidnapping, torturing and sexually assaulting a Charleston woman for at least a week, the Logan County Sheriff's Department said Monday.

Sheriff's deputies went Saturday to a Big Creek, West Virginia, residence in response to an anonymous tip that a woman was being held against her will, the department said in a news release.

As they spoke with a woman on the front porch, "a female inside the residence limped toward the door with her arms held out, saying, "Help me."

The 23-year-old woman had stab wounds on her left leg and bruises around her eyes, authorities said. The wounds were about a week old, the release said.

"Deputies found her with two black eyes, part of her hair had been pulled out, she had lacerations on her neck, and she had been physically, mentally and sexually abused," Logan County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.

The victim was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from the toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court, The Associated Press reported.

Deputies arrested Frankie Brewster, 49; her son Bobby, 24; Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, West Virginia; and George A. Messer, 27, Karen Burton, 46, and Alisha Burton, 23, all of Chapmanville, West Virginia. All six were held Monday in lieu of $100,000 bond each, and all have asked for court-appointed public defenders, according to AP.

Charges range from kidnapping and torturing to malicious wounding and battery.

Those arrested are white and the victim is black, and the FBI plans to investigate it as a possible hate crime, according to AP. The sheriff's department requested the FBI's participation, an agency spokesman told AP.