Vestaburg woman lingered in cage three months after state discovered her
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Leona M. Biser is accused of keeping her care-dependent sister in a cage-like structure at 29 Sixth St., the right side of this duplex, in Centerville’s Vestaburg section.
Leona Mae Biser
Sen. Camera Bartolotta
Acting on a tip, state Adult Protective Services investigator Anthony Bruno discovered a care-dependent Vestaburg woman Aug. 23 neglected and living in a cage-like enclosure in her sister’s home.
Yet it took three months for Loretta Lancaster, 53, to be rescued from her deplorable surroundings and given badly needed medical attention, court records show.
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, whose district includes Vestaburg, said Tuesday that she wants to meet with the state Department of Human Services to discuss how to better care for the neglected and why it took three months to get Lancaster help.
“It’s just awful all the way around, said Bartolotta, R-Carroll. “I don’t know all of the details, but I want to find out where that chain of information broke.”
Erin James, press secretary for Human Services, couldn’t immediately provide an explanation Tuesday for why it took three months to get Lancaster out of her surroundings.
“We’re doing our best to gather information for you, and we’ll get you a response as soon as we have information from staff directly involved,” James replied in an email.
Bruno reported that he found Lancaster dressed inappropriately, ungroomed, nonverbal and housed inside a locked wooden enclosure in the living room of 29 Sixth St.
“The enclosure had a single, dirty mattress on the floor,” the state attorney general’s office noted in an affidavit seeking a warrant to search the residence in December.
“The rest of the house was deplorable and bugs along with garbage were observed directly outside of the home,” Bruno related to investigators.
The discoveries prompted the attorney general’s office to charge the woman’s sister, Leona Biser, 51, on Jan. 15 with neglect of a care-dependent person, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and unlawful restraint. She is free on $50,000 unsecured bond, and due to appear again Friday in district court for her preliminary hearing in the case.
Centerville police, during a Nov. 22 visit to Biser’s home with state investigators, called an ambulance to take Lancaster to Mon Valley Hospital, court records indicate.
She was diagnosed there with a urinary tract infection, contracted arms and legs, genital warts and dehydration, court records show. She also wasn’t seeing her physician and being given proper doses of seizure medication, court records show. Investigators also accused Biser of denying her sister solid food and feeding her only milk in a baby bottle. Their home’s water supply had also been disconnected.
Lancaster moved in with Biser in August 2018 after their mother died.
Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge John DiSalle has since granted guardianship of Lancaster to Jewish Family and Community Services in Pittsburgh, which has reported progress on her condition.