Marylou Dewitt, inset, allegedly chained her adopted daughter to a bed frame for days. (Mug shot from Fayetteville County Jail; Crime scene screenshot from WTAE-TV Pittsburgh/YouTube)
A mother and former school nurse in Pennsylvania faces charges after authorities said she chained her 22-year-old adopted daughter with special needs to a bed frame by the neck, waist and hands and left in her urine and feces for five days.
Marylou Dewitt, 53, faces a slew of charges, including neglect and endangering the welfare of a care-dependent person, assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment, false imprisonment, unlawful restraint, and tampering with evidence, according to the court docket.
The case came to light after the victim’s sister had just come home from the store at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday and heard screaming from an upstairs bedroom in the home in the 700 block of Stauffer Street in Lower Tyrone Township, according to an affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
She said her mother had chained her adopted sister to a bed, and she only had access to sandwiches and no other food. She said she found the keys to the chains and handcuffs in a lunch box and freed her sister, then placed the restraints in the lunch box.
She told authorities Dewitt returned to the household and tried to clean up the room by placing the mattress back on the bed. She also grabbed the lunch box with the restraints, but the sister confronted her and prevented her from “tampering with the scene,” the affidavit said.
Dewitt then left the residence with the lunch box.
The daughter showed authorities a video and photos showing the victim handcuffed to a wooden bed frame and a chain that wrapped around her neck, court documents said. The chain was wrapped in a pink T-shirt, the affidavit said.
The victim had been wrapped with a bike chain at the hip. Her face was swollen, her right leg bruised.
She smelled of urine and body odor. In the center of the room, there was a wooden bed frame. The mattress and bedding were up against the wall. Wear marks were seen on the headboard where she had been handcuffed, court documents said.
The victim said her mother had bound her to the bed on May 24 and said she made her “pee and poop” herself. She was given sandwiches in Ziploc bags and had no water. She hadn’t been allowed to shower since February or brush her teeth, court documents said.
She said Dewitt would not let her take her medicine, and she was at risk of having seizures without it. She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD, the affidavit said.
Authorities said Dewitt, meanwhile, was not at home. But she knew the cops were at the house and refused to return. She then began sending suicidal messages to family members, the document said. Police got her on the phone and began negotiating with her to get her to surrender, but she refused. Authorities eventually tracked her down via cellphone pings in the Pittsburgh area and tried to pull her over. Eventually, she did and was taken into custody, the affidavit said.
“The mother was maybe having some sort of mental episode,” Trooper Rocco Gagliardi said, according to the Observer-Reporter. “It took a little time for her to stop.”
Dewitt, who is being held at the Fayette County Jail without bond, is set for a preliminary hearing on June 12.
Local CBS affiliate KDKA reported she was no longer employed as a nurse at Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
