In Case You've Never Heard Of Megan Williams

Megan Williams was rescued Tuesday when sheriff's deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, went into the rural hills of West Virginia and found the badly abused woman at a mobile home.

Six people -- including a mother and son and a mother and daughter -- have been charged with an assortment of crimes in the case.

Frankie Brewster, 49, was charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and giving false information during a felony investigation. Her son, Bobby R. Brewster, 24, who allegedly brought Megan to the mobile home, was also charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assaults during the commission of a felony. Danny J. Combs, 20, was charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding; George A. Messer, 27, was charged with assault and battery; Karen Burton, 46, was charged with malicious wounding, battery and assault; and her daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, was charged with assault and battery.

The accused are being held on $100,000 bonds each.

According to a criminal indictment, the perpetrators raped Megan, doused her with scalding hot water, made her eat dog and rat waste and drink from a toilet. Her captors also stabbed the victim in the leg several times. During the attacks, Megan was repeatedly called a racial slur.

The Logan County, W. Va., sheriff described the crime as "something that would come out of a horror movie."

Public defender Dwyane Adkins, appointed to represent Bobby Brewster, and public defender Betty Gregory, appointed to represent Karen Burton, declined comment. The other defendants' lawyers were either in hearings or did not return telephone calls Wednesday.

In West Virginia, kidnapping charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. Sexual assault charges carry a sentence of up to 35 years, while a hate crime charge carries a penalty of 10 years.

Since 1991, police have filed 108 criminal charges against the six.

Frankie Brewster was charged in 1994 with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter and wanton endangerment. She was released from prison in 2000 after serving five years in the death of an 84-year-old woman, court records show.

Bobby Brewster was accused in March of attacking his mother with a machete, according to court records. The outcome of those charges - domestic assault, brandishing a deadly weapon and obstructing an officer - was not immediately clear.

He also faces domestic battery and assault charges after a dispute involving Megan Williams in July. A court date has not yet been set.

The Brewsters were constantly fighting, drinking and disrupting the otherwise quiet hollow in southern West Virginia, Roy and Charlotte Williams said.

``Sometimes we'd hear music playing really loud,'' Charlotte Williams said. ``We could tell you what the words to the song was, it was so clear. It would go for three or four days, 24 hours a day sometimes.''

Roy and Charlotte Williams said they were concerned the case would unfairly taint Logan County as racist. They said the county was a place where people go to church together and hold yard sales.

``You never, ever expect this to happen anywhere near you. Never,'' Charlotte Williams said.

Residents say that even where racism lurks, it is restrained.

``This goes beyond prejudice,'' said the Rev. Audie Murphy Sr., president of the Logan County branch of the NAACP. ``It's actually evil in its heightened form.

``I feel it's not a direct indication of the community in its entirety,'' he said, ``because there are great people here, such as the one who notified the authorities that the girl was being held captive.''