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Woman: She and others held captive in Texas by horror queen

DEE TORRENCE says she, too, was locked in a closet by Linda Ann Weston. Shuttered for two weeks in a bathroom closet in Killeen, Texas, Torrence says, she saw Weston's other captives - Weston's niece, Beatrice; Tamara Breeden and Edwin Sanabria - in an attic above the closet.

"Dee" Torrence says she, too, was locked in a closet by Linda Ann Weston. She had been friends with Weston's daughter. They were in Killeen, Texas at the time. (Lew Stamp/Special for the Daily News)
"Dee" Torrence says she, too, was locked in a closet by Linda Ann Weston. She had been friends with Weston's daughter. They were in Killeen, Texas at the time. (Lew Stamp/Special for the Daily News)Read more

DEE TORRENCE says she, too, was locked in a closet by Linda Ann Weston.

Shuttered for two weeks in a bathroom closet in Killeen, Texas, Torrence says, she saw Weston's other captives - Weston's niece, Beatrice; Tamara Breeden and Edwin Sanabria - in an attic above the closet.

There was no ladder to get to the attic, but she saw the three and could talk to them, she said. "Piggy," she said - referring to Beatrice - and Breeden had cigarette burns on their faces; their tongues were burned by a spoon. She said Breeden "had no hair," it had been shaved off. And one of her legs had been stabbed.

Torrence had been friends with Weston's daughter, whom she knew as Jean McIntosh. They had met through McIntosh's father's side of the family in 1998 in Philadelphia, where Torrence grew up. In August 2009, Torrence, who said she had nothing to keep her in Philly, went to live with McIntosh in Killeen.

They are no longer friends. "I didn't know she was psycho," Torrence said of McIntosh, who helped her mother keep Torrence locked in her mother's closet, Torrence said.

Philly police arrested Weston, 51; her boyfriend, Gregory Thomas, 47; and Eddie Wright, 50, on Oct. 15 after a Tacony landlord found four mentally disabled adults locked in a dank sub-basement boiler room. McIntosh, 32, was arrested a few days later. Other sources have identified McIntosh with a first name of Jane, or by her nickname, "Shay."

The four have been charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses in connection with the four basement victims.

Those victims included Breeden, 29, and Sanabria, 31. A third victim, Herbert Knowles, 40, was also in the Texas house but not locked in the attic, Torrence said. The other victim, Derwin McLemire, has not been tied to the Texas house.

Torrence, 34, spoke to the Daily News by phone yesterday. She said she does not want her location disclosed because she fears retribution from Weston and McIntosh.

Killeen police last night said that they did not have a report in their database about a kidnapping of someone named Torrence. But Torrence's godmother and sister both corroborated her story, saying she called them after she escaped from Weston's closet.

Torrence said she first lived with McIntosh and McIntosh's two young kids, a boy and a girl, when she went to Texas. Then, in early January 2010, they all moved into a house where Weston, Thomas, Wright (known as "Pastor Wright"), and Weston and Thomas' kids were living. She did not initially know that anyone was locked in the attic.

In late January 2010, she said, she was drugged and woke up locked in the bathroom closet. (She later overheard Weston telling someone she was locked up because she "knew too much.")

She realized there were people in the attic above the closet because she heard them, she said. She was able to speak to them and see them through a ceiling door. She did not know why they did not jump down to the closet.

"They just asked, 'When I get out of here, could I get some help?' " Torrence said. "They just said, 'She's [Weston's] just mean; she's just mean.' "

Sanabria said they were being held captive for their Social Security disability checks, Torrence said.

Weston and McIntosh beat Breeden and Beatrice Weston, and made them fight each other, Torrence said.

Torrence said she was fed and allowed to use the toilet. Someone would unlock the closet door so she could relieve herself and eat food, like chicken and rice, left for her in the locked bathroom.

She said the attic hostages were fed late at night, after she had been fed and was asleep. She said the captives told her that Weston fed them a mix of chicken bones, paper and "poop" [feces], among other things.

Torrence recalled easily falling asleep after she ate. She later was told by Breeden that their captors drugged their food.

Throughout her two weeks in the closet, Torrence said, she kicked the closet door and yelled, "Please let me out!" but she just heard people laughing.

One day, which she recalled as Feb. 1, 2010, Torrence kicked the closet door hard enough to crack it open. The bathroom door, luckily, also was open. She then saw one of Weston's younger daughters and begged her to let her out her bedroom window. Torrence escaped through the window, and then tried to help Sanabria, she said.

She said at that time, Sanabria was not in the attic, but in the living room, where he would clean. She opened the back door of the house to set him free, and he initially ran with her but got scared, and Weston's teenage son then caught him and brought him back to the house, she said.

Torrence said she ran to the Killeen Police Department and gave a statement, and called her sister in Philly.

Torrence's 32-year-old sister, who did not want her name printed, said yesterday: "She called me from the police station and told me they [Weston and McIntosh] kidnapped her. She was scared and she didn't have no money to get back to Philadelphia."

That day, Torrence said, she showed two cops where Weston lived. Torrence waited in the police car at the corner of the street, while the cops went to the door. She told the cops to ask for Breeden and Sanabria. Weston came to the door. When the cops returned, they told Torrence that they didn't see anything wrong and there was nothing they could do, Torrence said.

The next day, Torrence said, she was at the Greyhound bus station in Killeen when Weston, McIntosh and Wright spotted her from a van. Weston and McIntosh got out and chased her with sticks and pipes, she said. Torrence said she flagged down a police officer.

She told the cop that they were trying to beat her and that they had kidnapped her. But Weston and McIntosh told the cop that Torrence was trying to break into their house, Torrence said.

She said she went again to the police station, but they told her there was nothing they could do, so she returned to Greyhound to try to call someone to help her get home to Philadelphia.

Yvette Baxter, 50, Torrence's godmother, said yesterday that Torrence called her in February 2010 from Greyhound. "She sounded shook up," said Baxter.

Baxter said Torrence, who was calling from a pay phone, told her that she had been locked in a closet, then escaped, then was chased, and needed money to get back to Philly. Baxter then called one of McIntosh's brothers in Philly. But this brother spoke to McIntosh, who told him that she and Torrence just had a fight and things were now fine. After hearing this, and not hearing from Torrence by phone again, Baxter figured everything was all right.

Torrence said she received money from a church in Killeen to help her get back to Philadelphia.

- Staff writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report.