Pregnant woman abused to death in Illinois

[Tiassa]

Source: Seattle Times (Associated Press)
Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004298829_slaying22.html
Title: "6 charged with fatally abusing pregnant woman", by Jim Suhr
Date: March 22, 2008

A twenty-nine year old, developmentally-delayed, pregnant woman has been abused to death by her housemates, who were exploiting her for a Social Security check say police in Illinois. Among the suspects is a twelve year-old boy.

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 concrete floor.

Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where prosecutors say 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, authorities say, 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.

(Suhr)

Dorothy Dixon leaves behind a year-old son who weighed fifteen pounds when authorities took custody following his mother's death.

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 ....

.... "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.

Riley, Judy Woods, 43, 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.

(ibid)

Riley is said to have considered Dixon her slave, and while neighbors and the landlord were aware that Riley "ruled the roost", the details of what took place in the house have shocked everyone.

The case is so riddled with strangeness that it is hard to offer a coherent narrative:

Riley and Dixon, police said, had lived in Quincy, a Mississippi River town about 100 miles north of St. Louis. 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 2007, the Quincy Herald-Whig did a story on her comeback.

(ibid)

And yet the tale comes to such a grim conclusion:

Hayes said things apparently came to a head Jan. 30, when investigators think 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 Dixon's 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 — face, chest, 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."

(ibid)

The identity of the unborn fetus' father is yet unknown.

On the one hand, welcome to middle America. To the other, no wonder Apocalyptics think the End Times are upon us.

Four of the six will be defended on the public tab. One defendant, Michael Elliott, age 18, plans to hire his own attorney. There are no details on the twelve year-old.

Expect plea bargains. We'll see what justice equals.

 

[Asguard]

tiassa what happened to the childs father?

 

[everneo]

tiassa what happened to the childs father?

 

[backtoreality]

Wow, this is terrible.

 

[Xev]

All I can say.

 

[Xev]

tiassa what happened to the childs father?

Rotting in pain somewhere, hopefully. The article doesn't say anything about him.

 

[Asguard]

why should he be rotting in pain?
If as i think i read that she is mentally disabled then he could well be as well

 

[Xev]

why should he be rotting in pain?
If as i think i read that she is mentally disabled then he could well be as well

Except she wasn't in a group home with other disabled people, she was in a house being abused by people who took advantage of her condition. How could a woman that gone consent to anything?

Just, eww.

 

[Asguard]

Hang on, im not talking about the father of the unborn child. I was talking about the father of the OTHER child who was taken into protective care and was born BEFORE she went into the abusive place

 

[Xev]

Ah. In either case he's likely not going to provide for the child, which will likely be put in protective care.

 

[lucifers angel]

Ah. In either case he's likely not going to provide for the child, which will likely be put in protective care.

then perhaps thats the best place for the child, perhaps (hopefully) they will find the child a home who will love it and care for it!

There's no point in making the father care for the child, when he hasn't been around for him anyway!

 

[Tiassa]

Hang on, im not talking about the father of the unborn child. I was talking about the father of the OTHER child who was taken into protective care and was born BEFORE she went into the abusive place

I figure they don't know yet (or as of press time) who he is.

 

[Challenger78]

Holy fuck. Us humans are sadistic.