Missing Florida Girl Connected To Horror Case

PHILADELPHIA - A 15-year-old girl reported missing in Florida has been found in Northeast Philadelphia.

Slideshow: Inside The Philly Horror Basement

According to Philly.com, Benita Rodriguez was located Monday by police.

The girl was last seen at her Palm Beach, Fla., home on July 4th.

A Florida television station is reporting that Rodriguez was last seen with the son of one of the suspects in the ongoing house of horrors case here in Philadelphia, Gregory Thomas Jr.

Three people have been arrested in that case, including Gregory Thomas Sr.

Thomas and two others are facing a host of charges, including holding four mentally challenged people hostage in the basement of a Philadelphia apartment building.

Before moving here on Oct. 3, the suspects had lived in Florida.

Linda Weston is the accused ringleader of the scam to steal the Social Security checks of at least four mentally-challenged adults.

She, along with her boyfriend, Gregory Thomas, and another man, Eddie Wright, have been arrested here in Philadelphia.

Near the West Palm Beach home they had lived in before coming here, neighbors say they would see the alleged victims with bruises or other injuries. But they didn't think the people they lived with had caused them.

The homeowner says Weston had several disabled children living with her in the home. The homeowner also says the suspects left $50,000 worth of damage when they were evicted in June.

This story gets more complex by the days. Police are still finding out new facts, new evidence and new twists in this alleged Social Security scam and creepy kidnapping of mentally-challenged people.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says the case likely goes well beyond the four victims found. It could include as many as 50 more, for whom documents have been found in Weston's possession. Some may be missing. Some may have died and been dumped somewhere.

The four victims were found Saturday by the landlord. They were locked in the sub-basement of the Tacony apartment building.

On Monday, police gave the media its first inside that building's "dungeon" basement, where the four were kept for 10 days. One of them was chained to a rusty old boiler.

Reporters noted the lack of light, the lack of fresh air, and that the bucket that had been used by the four as a bathroom had not been emptied or moved.

"It's inhumane. It's terrible. And for someone to do that to another human being is very, very disturbing," Ramsey said outside the building. "… There is some indication that, as law enforcement or human services or some … government agency got close, they would move and change location. So that, literally, could keep this going on for – well, it did, for years. We just don't know how long some of these individuals have been with her: one individual, sometime earlier this year; another, maybe as long as five or six years."

The four victims in this case are now being cared for at a city mental health facility on North Parkside Avenue in West Philadelphia. They range in age from 29 to 41.

Tamara Breedon is from Philadelphia. Edwin Sanabria is also from Philly. Darvin McLemire is from North Carolina, and Herbert Knowles is from Norfolk, Va.

Police sought the public's help to find Knowles' relatives earlier on Monday.

Later in the day, Knowles' grandmother said that ever since he disappeared three years ago, the family knew something was wrong.

"I can't even explain – I can't even tell you right now because, you know, he was a trusting person, and they just took complete advantage of him," said the grandmother, Ella Louise Davis.

We've also learned that Breedon was reported missing in 2005. But a detective closed her case last year – even though she had not been found.

The FBI is also involved, and agents are now looking into other missing persons cases to see if there could be more victims.

FOX 29's Steve Keeley was live Tuesday morning outside the Northeast Detective Division with more on this still developing story.