Wow, this chick is going to DIAF

[Ns1]

ALTON, Ill. (AP) - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.

Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.

They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.

Dixon?six months pregnant?died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.

"This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison."

Investigators put much of the blame on Michelle Riley, 35, who they said befriended Dixon but pocketed monthly Social Security checks she got because of her developmental delays.

Dixon saw little, if any, of the money, Hayes said. For months she weathered the torment to keep a roof over her head and that of her year-old son, who weighed just 15 pounds when taken into state custody after his mom's death.

"I've never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not really show any remorse," Hayes said. "It was just a slow, torturous, tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was dying."

Riley, 43-year-old Judy Woods and three teenagers, including Riley's 15-year-old daughter, LeShelle McBride, are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated and heinous battery, intentional homicide of an unborn child, and unlawful restraint. Riley's 12-year-old son is charged as a juvenile.

Riley, her daughter, Woods and 16-year-old Benny Wilson have public defenders who did not immediately return messages for comment. An 18- year-old defendant, Michael Elliott, planned to get his own attorney, court records show.

All remain in jail on $1 million bond.

Messages left with a Chicago-area sister of Dixon went unreturned, but neighbors, Hayes and newspaper accounts offer a mosaic of the months leading to Dixon's demise inside the small, white, blue-shuttered house.

Riley and Dixon, police said, had lived in Quincy, a Mississippi River town about 100 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. Quincy is where Riley worked as a coordinator for a regional center that helps the developmentally disabled with housing and other services. Dixon was a client.

For years, an impoverished Riley struggled raising her children. Her use of methamphetamine and cocaine brought drug convictions in 2002 and 2004. But with treatment and housing help from the Quincy YWCA, Riley put her life in order?so much that in February of last year, the Quincy Herald-Whig did a story on her comeback.

Last summer, Dixon and Riley moved into the $800-a-month, three- bedroom rental in Alton about 15 miles north of St. Louis. From the start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley trouble.

"Michelle was evil, vindictive. Manipulative," said Hudson, convinced the teenagers were Riley's powerless minions.

"She was angry, vicious," added Brandt.

Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley's feet until Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when she got in trouble, the neighbors said.

"Being in their house was like being in a prison day room," Hudson said. "They just sat around the kitchen table and fought."

There was little question that Riley ruled the roost.

While doing fix-ups on the home last fall, landlord Steve Atkins saw Riley "barking orders" at the children and everyone else. Atkins joked to her whether he needed to call the Army and see if they wanted their drill sergeant back.

"She didn't laugh about it at all," Atkins said. "Obviously, I hit a nerve."

Atkins said Dixon generally kept to herself "but was always nice when she spoke to you." He saw no hints she'd been suffering or tortured.

"I would have never, ever suspected something like this," he said. "It's definitely shocking."

Police said Dixon was allowed out of the house but didn't say under what conditions. Hayes didn't know who the father of Dixon's fetus is.

Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when investigators believe that Woods, during a dispute, beat Dixon on the head with an object Hayes wouldn't identify. The next day Woods found her dead.

Hayes watched the autopsy and found her injuries disturbing. X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body?her face, her chest, her arms and feet?and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.

None of the injuries, Hayes said, proved singly fatal to Dixon. Her system already was taxed by her unborn baby.

"The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."

In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found spots of blood in a shower and tiny smears on the concrete floor, washer and dryer.

"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame."

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Cliffs:
-RTFA

Edited the summary so that search can find this

ATOT Moderator ElFenix

 

[Dacalo]

That's just repulsive and disgusting...

 

[JohnCU]

ok i can't even imagine how fucked up you have to be to do that to someone.

 

[Throckmorton]

Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

 

[MyThirdEye]

:sadface;

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

I was thinking more like the Hanoi Hilton

 

[Jeff7]

21st century here, folks. 21st century. Or so I'm told. Stuff like this sounds more like 210,000 BC.

 

[dainthomas]

I tried thinking of the worst possible punishment for this sub-human piece of garbage, but none was painful enough. I have a good imagination too.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Holy shit is there evil in this world...all for social security checks...because they refused to get jobs.

 

[JS80]

Dude wtf? What the fuck.

 

[mrrman]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
ok i can't even imagine how fucked up you have to be to do that to someone.

sounds like a movie I just watched called The Girl Next Door

 

[ChaoZ]

That's the most fucked up thing I've ever read. They all need to be buried alive.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
I tried thinking of the worst possible punishment for this sub-human piece of garbage, but none was painful enough. I have a good imagination too.

I think a death sentence would be adequate. Torture would provide nothing useful to society, and would not make them regret their heinous behavior; it would only make them regret getting caught. A lifetime of servitude to society would set a dangerous precedent, possibly setting up a slippery slope - arrests increase to provide a sort of slave labor force, that kind of slipper slope. Life in prison: we pay to keep scum alive. If I wanted to keep scum alive, I'd dig out a pond and let it get overgrown with algae.
Simplest solution: death, be rid of them.

 

[Nitemare]

Everytime I think mankind can do no worse, I come across an article like this. They are not even worth the cost of a bullet.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

I was thinking more like the Hanoi Hilton

Yea me too, Guantanamo just has a bad rep because of the stupid media. Hanoi was the real thing.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

I think the woman behind this doesn't deserve to live.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Wow. That's horrible. I can't think of a worse enough punishment for them.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: mrrman

Originally posted by: JohnCU
ok i can't even imagine how fucked up you have to be to do that to someone.

sounds like a movie I just watched called The Girl Next Door

Disgustingly, based on a true story.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

I think the woman behind this doesn't deserve to live.

She does deserve to live a miserable life. Being dead doesn't qualify as punishment!!

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
21st century here, folks. 21st century. Or so I'm told. Stuff like this sounds more like 210,000 BC.

Just because humans were less technologically advanced in the past doesn't somehow make them more barbaric. (In 210,000 BC that is.)
Also remember that even now in many countries people still get tortured, there is still human trafficking, and there are still people used as slaves and abused.

 

[S Freud]

I honestly have a hard time believing people can do things like this to each other. Then all I need to do is read the paper. To think that people this fucked up walk our streets.

Very sad to hear about the girl and her unborn child.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Wow. That's horrible. I can't think of a worse enough punishment for them.

I can't either, and also believe there's no real point. Just execute the lot of them and be done with it. Society will benefit from a net gain when/if these people are removed from it.

 

[sutahz]

Much like the story of 2 teens who hid in a house to steal a car, but the car was taken by the mother that early morning so they abused (and killed?) the teenage daughter during the 6hr session.
Truely death is the only rehabilitation. Lethal injection, firing squad, lynching, doesn't matter. As for the 12yo not being tried as an adult and the 15yo as one... ?? both as adults or both as jueveniles. They should have told someone about the activities at their house. A friend, a teacher, a stranger in a van offering them candy, someone. The kids need to be watched very closely for the next decade. If after 10yrs they are not cured, death.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: dainthomas
I tried thinking of the worst possible punishment for this sub-human piece of garbage, but none was painful enough. I have a good imagination too.

I think a death sentence would be adequate. Torture would provide nothing useful to society, and would not make them regret their heinous behavior; it would only make them regret getting caught. A lifetime of servitude to society would set a dangerous precedent, possibly setting up a slippery slope - arrests increase to provide a sort of slave labor force, that kind of slipper slope. Life in prison: we pay to keep scum alive. If I wanted to keep scum alive, I'd dig out a pond and let it get overgrown with algae.
Simplest solution: death, be rid of them.

Ditto. "People" like that should just be put down like the animals that they are. They do not deserve our attention and care, and should be simply just disposed of.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Life in prison for all of them. Hopefully Guantanamo.

I was thinking more like the Hanoi Hilton

My vote goes for just covering them naked in honey and dropping them off in forest with no sign of civilization for many, many miles around.

Seems a bit more fitting for their primative ways.