After hearing “screaming” coming from a bedroom located upstairs, the lady, whose mother was taken into custody, recorded photographs and videos of the horrifying circumstances. The victim said that she had been chained for many days without access to water, medicine, or a place to use the restroom.
After reportedly having her adoptive daughter, who also has special needs, tied to a bed frame in her house, a lady from Pennsylvania who worked as a school nurse at a school for students with special needs was taken into custody.
According to the arrest affidavit that was obtained through Law&Crime, Marylou Dewitt has been charged with a number of offenses, including but not limited to: neglect of a care-dependent person, endangering the welfare of a care-dependent person, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment, false imprisonment, unlawful restraint, and tampering with evidence.
At around two minutes before two o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania State Police responded to a 9-1-1 call, which led to her arrest. It was Dewitt’s daughter who made the call to the police when she arrived home from the shop at about midnight and “heard screaming coming from the upstairs of the residence,” as stated in the documents.
The individual alleged that her mother “had chained her mentally handicapped adopted sister to a bed for an unknown period of time in which she only had access to sandwiches and no food.” According to the allegations, the lady took photographs and films of what she saw in the room before discovering the keys to the chains in a lunch box and releasing her sister.
The photographs and video footage, as reported by the police, showed the sister being restrained by handcuffs to a wooden bed frame and having a chain around her neck. A pink t-shirt was used to wrap the chain around itself. It was possible to observe a bike chain that was used to restrain [the sister] in the hip region.
A lady said that Marylou “began doing this last week and only left her sandwiches to eat.” The sister’s description of the situation characterized the victim’s face as “swollen,” while the woman stated that Marylou “began doing this last week.” In addition to this, she said that Dewitt “had been making her ‘pee and poop’ herself,” while photographs revealed that she had bruises on her leg.
The statement states that when their mother arrived home, she “attempted to clean up the room by placing the mattress back on the bed with the intention of making the room more sanitary.” Additionally, she proceeded to steal the lunch box that contained the shackles. Marylou “left the residence with the lunch box,” despite the fact that her sister claimed that she “confronted” her mother and “prevented her from tampering with the scene.”
When the victim was examined by the troopers who were present at the incident, she said that she had been confined to the bed since May 24 and that she had “no access to water.” In addition to this, she said that Dewitt had “not allowed her to take a shower or brush her teeth since February,” and that she had withheld medicine because “she was at risk of having seizures” without it. As well as the room itself, the trooper saw that “a strong odor of urine and body odor was emanating” from her.
According to the troopers, Dewitt “refused to return to the residence” after becoming aware of the presence of law enforcement and “began sending suicidal messages to family members.” It was determined that Dewitt was located in the vicinity of Pittsburgh via the use of mobile phone pings, despite the fact that early phone discussions with her were unsuccessful. According to the affidavit, the local police “entered into the pursuit” when she refused to pull over. However, State Police were able to persuade her to surrender over the phone.
It’s possible that the mother was experiencing some kind of severe mental crisis… In an interview with the Observer-Reporter, a representative for the State Police said that it took some time for her to change her behavior.
WPXI reports that the suspect was employed as a nurse at Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville, but that she has since been terminated from her position. According to the school’s Facebook page, it is a public charter special needs school that does not charge tuition and serves kids between the ages of 13 and 21.
Prior to the preliminary heading that will take place on June 12, she is being kept without bond.