;)
Saturday
Mar222008
Dorothy Dixon - Tortured and Murdered
Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 5:01AM 
Just when you think you have heard and seen it all, there comes along a story that redefines the depths of cruelty and depravity to which some people are willing to descend. This is a story about a pregnant, mentally retarded mother (Dorothy Dixon) who suffered horribly and was ultimately murdered by the very people who were entrusted with her care. I find it hard to believe that anyone, much less 6 people, could exhibit such wanton disregard for the life of another human being and engage in such reprehensible behavior as described below. Dorothy Dixon was ridiculed, tortured and murdered by monsters. After all that she had to suffer though: May she finally Rest In Peace.
When Dorothy Dixon, 29, died she was six months pregnant and the mother of a one-year-old baby boy. The police believe Dixon died as a result of a blow on the head delivered by 43-year-old Judy Woods. It was however the autopsy that revealed the extent of the torture that Dixon suffered:
X-rays revealed roughly 30 BBs lodged in her. Deep-tissue burns covered about one-third of her body — her face, her chest, her arms and feet — and left her severely dehydrated. Her face and body showed signs of prolonged abuse. Many of her wounds were infected.
A
Madison
County grand jury indicted Michelle Riley, 35, Judy Woods, 43, Michael Elliott, 18, Benny Lee Wilson, 16, and LeShelle McBride, 15, of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and one count apiece of intentional homicide of an unborn child, heinous battery and unlawful restraint. A 12-year-old boy is charged as a juvenile. The victim Dorothy Dixon, 29, and all the suspects except Elliott lived at at 2957 Hillcrest St. in Alton, Ill. Bail for each person was set at $1 million. Riley and Elliott are being held at the Madison County Jail; Wilson and McBride are charged as adults but are being held at a juvenile detention center. Judy Woods has been held without bail since Feb. 1 at the Madison County Jail. Dixon's one-year-old son who weighed only 15 pounds, was taken into protective custody. Neither the child's father nor the unborn child's father was identified.In June or July of last year
both Dixon and Riley rented the 3-bedroom house on Hillcrest St. The monthly rent was $800. Six people lived in the house. LeShelle McBride and the 12-year-old boy are Riley's children. Woods and Wilson also moved in. Dixon was made to sleep in an unfinished section of the basement, while the others occupied the rest of the house. Riley was an abusive and controlling person who manipulated and threatened everyone in the house. From the start, neighbors Chad Hudson and Terri Brandt considered Riley trouble saying she was evil, vindictive and manipulative. Riley considered Dixon her slave, making her rub Riley's feet until Riley fell asleep and forcing her to run naked around the house when she got in trouble, the neighbors said.Riley
and Dixon had moved to Alton from Quincy, where according to Quincy police, they had lived together for some time. Riley worked for the West Central Illinois Center for Independent Living, which helps developmentally disabled people find housing and jobs. That's where she met Dixon, who was a client. Riley also had problems with the law. She was a drug abuser and had previously sold drugs to pay for her habit. Riley's criminal record includes narcotics offenses in Quincy in 2002 and 2004, and fighting in 2003. Riley had been taking Dixon’s monthly Social Security check which she had been receiving as a result of her developmental disabilities. Dixon saw little, if any, of the money.“I thought I knew them real well,” the landlord, property owner Steve Atkins, said.
Atkins said Dixon was quiet and friendly. "She was always nice when she spoke to you." He saw no hints she'd been suffering or tortured.
Riley, on the other hand, wasn’t as easy going, Atkins said. He was on the property one day making some repairs, and Riley was barking orders, Atkins said.
“I asked her, 'Do I need to call the Army and tell them to come get their drill sergeant?' Atkins, 39, said. “I thought that was funny. But she didn’t laugh about it at all, obviously, I hit a nerve.”
The abuse Dixon suffered at the hands of Riley and the others took place between Dec. 1 and Jan. 30. Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor. She ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where prosecutors say her housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.
"This is heartbreaking," police Lt. David Hayes said. "It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. I've never seen an almost conspiratorial effort by a group of people to continuously torture someone until she finally died, then not really show any remorse," Hayes said. "It was just a slow, torturous, tragic way to die. I highly doubt Dorothy Dixon even knew she was dying. The autopsy sort of indicates her immune system just shut down," he said. "It was not capable of fending off any more."
In the rental home's basement, Atkins said, he found a bucket of feces in Dixon's former room, a waist-high door that was nailed shut, and blood on the walls, washer, dryer and in the basement shower.
"It's disgraceful the way this girl died, as kind and as sweet as this girl was," he said. "She didn't deserve to die the way she did. It's just terrible, senseless. It's just a total shame."
Reader Comments (37)
FREE MY MAN BENNY WILSON HE DIDNT DO IT I BELIVE IN MY HEART THAT HE DIDNT DO IT. HES A KID COME ON LET HIM OUT. HE HAS PLACES HE CAN GO NO PROBLEM. THERES PEOPLE OUT HERE THAT LOVES HIM LET MY MAN COME HOME PLEASE.I WAS WITH HIM BEFORE HE WENT IN HES NOT ABUSEIVE
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
kids learn what they are taught!he thought they were playing games (which is really desturbing considering she wasn't there in the head)he could of said i don't want to do this anymore,but he didn't.he's as guilty as the rest.just because he didn't do it to you does not mean he didn't do it.
Wowa weewa. Death penalty for all involved!
Free your man Benny Lee???? what planet are you on? He deserves the same thing that poor mentally challenged victim recieved at his hands and those of others. I only hope that he has the same fate happen to him in prison along with the rest of those animals who tortured this poor girl. Only unlike thier victim who did not know right from wrong and probably did not know she was dying, unable to summon help. These animals do have the mental capacity to know and feel pain. I hope they are subject to the same treatment they delt to her at the hands of thier fellow inmates.. Dont bend over for the soap benny lee. May you all rot in hell you sick f*_ks!!! By the way so innocent a 1 year old child weighing 15 pounds??? and you still say he is innocent?? He had the choice to be a coward or courageous. He chose the path of an animal!
Okay for all you people talkin down on Benny Lee you guys need to get real cuz he ain't do shi*!! Ive known him for awhile and he is like a brother to me and i know him better than any of you guys!!!! He ain't like that an he WOULD NOT DO ANY THING LIKE THAT!!!!!!!
You guys need to let Benny Lee go he did not do anything like that. I have known him for a long time he is not abusive and he is and he is a great kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET REAL
Get real? Are you serious you waste case of a friend. Anybody who stands by and let that cruellty occur deserves no sympathy. He knew what was going on, they all did. Some boy you have for a friend, all that shows is what kind of a person you bitches are. Don't forget pansies, you're judged by the friends you keep.
All you that judge Benny for what went on inside that house is wrong because i've known Benny FOR EVER and he would not do that!!! Your not always judged by your friends an for all you people that want to talk down on someone you need to talk down on the mother who had her children around that and the mother that threatned her children if they told someone!! So get all your facts straight before you talk shit about someone you DON'T KNOW!!!!!
I think you are all stupid for sticking up for this Benny kid. I don't care if he was a good kid when you knew him but from the looks of it you didn't know him that well. Regardless of if he was involved he sure didn't try to stop it. Layla Hoaglin just for your information ain't isn't a word learn how to speak proper english, idiot. Slang, being ignorant and negligent is not culture. You are making yourself look like a dumbass! Chances are you are a dumbass but I guess that is because you hung out with Benny and don't know right from wrong either. Benny is a punk and deserves the same treatment that he allowed to happen to Dixon. I don't thinkwhat the others done was right but I am respoding to all you idiots that think poor little Benny is innocent, you're all dip shits!
sarah you dumb bitch you need 2 leave benny lee alone he DIDN"T DO IT if you mean to call some 1 dumb look @ ur self ur prblly blond but anyway leave the kid alone.....
I'm humored by your ignorance Megan, Layla and whom ever else decides to stick up for him.Regardless if she beat her children, it's called CPS.Yeah, It's not the best damn place, but they'd be better off there than with their mother.He knew as well as everyone else in that house what was going and he's just as guilty for not standing up.Besides not everyone is whom you think they are.Another thing if your gonna stand up for you friend, talk as if you have a brain.Typing like a complete moron only makes him look bad for hanging out with dumbass like you.
Okay first Of all Sarah you don't know me so you can just shut up!!! An I can talk anyway that i want you guys don't know Benny So Stop Talking shit on him!!! all You dumbasses Need worry about your own life before you get in other peoples buisness that you don't know shit about!!!! No matter what ya'll say Ima be right by his side Because I know him and he's not like that so get a life and shut the fuck up!!!
LOOk you dumb bitch leave me and Benny lee alone he didn't do it if your goin sit there and talk about somebody look at ur self so just leave him and all involved alone!!!!!! ROSE 4 UR INFO IM NOT ignorant if you really want to talk about somebody you need to get ur life straight and in check and then maybe you can talk shit on other ppl but until then shut the fuck up
Regardless of their demenor or how long you've known them, you never actually know them.
Even if you are threatened with pain or torture yourself you should do what's right. If he had told not only would these horrid acts have ended and she had have been saved, but all the other children would be taken away: where she couldn't get them and they'd have a chance.
"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."
what it all comes down to is this: if you hang around people who do monstorous and evil things, you are going to be labled as a deamon. if this guy was sooo good and soo innocent, why did he watch all of this happen and not do the good and right thing and report it? if you saw someone being murdered in an alley, are you a good person to walk away withought calling the cops and let it happen? now someone is being murdered -slowly- in your home over weeks, and you do nothing...what kind of person are you really? you don't have to put your hand on a person to be wrong, and this "good" guys failure to report things that he -wasnt- doing is getting him the same penalty.
Ultimately people are going to ask - "if you werent doing it too, then why didnt you stop it?" because usually, people who are too good to be engaged in this type of activity are usally pretty strongly against it and tend to do something about it.
and Mary makes a good point, if this guy would have reported it, he would not be in this situation.
There's no use in trying to use intellect to make these disgusting ghetto low lives understand anything. Megan, Layla, and whoever else that would even attempt to defend Benny.. or ANYONE involved is complete idiot. (If you couldn't already tell my their impeccable grammar, spelling, and use of "yall", "aint" and "!!!!!!!!"s.)
All for a social security check... *snicker*. Trash like YOU (Megan, Layla, ETC)would be the only types of people that ACTUALLY surround themselves with people like this, and *then* try and defend them!
**'OH HELL NA BENNY WUD NEVER DO SOMETHIN LIKE DAT, U DONT NO HIM! U DONT NO ME BITCH SO SHUT THE FUCK UP' <-- I'm waiting for that very 'clever' reply soon. Ha Ha!
You are all a bunch of disgusting animals. Go get a fucking brain. (Believe me, your state makes taxpayers pay for you low lives to get an education.. even if you can't afford it without a torture victim's social security check).
Why don't you girls grow up and separate from people like Benny? Fuck, it seems like you need to separate from a lot of people you know if you don't want to end up like them. You are who you associate yourself with.
Good luck in your life. You'll need as much as you can get.
Okay first of all I would NEVER do anything like that because it is HORRIBLE what that woman had to go through!! But I do honestly believe in my heart that Benny did not do that!! I don't know why he didn't go find help and tell I can't answer that question but all you guys talking down on him need to get your life straight before you try to talk shit on someone else!! You guy's got your own opinion and I got mine. I respect your opinion so respect mine!! I LOVE BENNY JUST LIKE A BROTHER AND I HOPE HE DIDN"T DO THAT BUT WHO"S TO SAY?? SO WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO THE POINT ALL OF THEM ARE LOCKED UP EVEN MY LIL BROTHER D SO THEY GOT WHAT THEY HAD COMING BUT NO MATTER WHAT I AM GOING TO BE BY HIS SIDE!!
I am believing what layla said if you got ur own minds and we have ours so quick trying to put words in ur motherfuckin mouth
I think that if Benny knew what was going on and did not seek help then he is involved. He could've sought help and she could have been saved. Any 10-11 year old would know if someone is in need of help, like Donna Dixon. It's a shame that he let this go on with knowledge that this woman was being tortured. So, if he did not abuse physically, he did so mentally and willfully, by not notifying the authors, thus giving his consent to the dehumanization of a lady that was disabled.
What a shame that is!
I strongly disagree with you G smith if a 10 year old new what was goin on then why didn't they call the police benny lee was trying to save her that was her son so it makes no sence why her own son would kill her?/?// RIGHT
Dude was absolutely involved. If you choose to do nothing, you're still making a choice. As far as I'm concerned those kind of people may not be as sadistic a the person carrying out the act, but they're absolutely spineless. No balls, it's disgusting.
All you chicks out there with this dude's back, keep running your mouths. You make yourselves look worse with every word you type. :D
Hey look I am the same age as Benny. I think that even though he is 12 and a kid he still has the mental capacity to report the abuse to the authoritys. While I don't think he deserves to die, I think that he is still responsible and should be senteced.
only god can judge us humans. arter all he is the same gog who made us. and on judgement day everyone on this earth will be held accountable for every decision they have made good or bad. with that being said, stop judgeing and let god work it out. just live your own lives people.
Okay, I seriously am at a loss for words right now. I am 18 years old and I feel like I am more mature than most people responding to this. Are you all seriously argueing each other over "opinions" not "facts"?!!! The last time I knew when I was reading this article was that this Benny guy was NOT THE ONLY ONE INVOLVED!!! Yes, I get it. The ones saying they know him, he's innocent and he wouldn't do that, you are friends or someone close to him. I can understand why you say this. I look at it both ways. Either A. You can't imagine someone you know doing that! Everyone in the world thinks that way when someone they know and are close to is accused of such horid acts. I would too at first. Remember there are things people hide about themselves because they are ashamed to let people know the real them. or B. You know him REALLY well and know he wouldn't have it in him to do such a thing and that it's not a side that he hides. If that is so, good for him. He just might be another victim of a woman who was "manipulative and abusive". That very well just be the case. If so I feel bad for him. The thing is you don't know the truth, I don't know the truth and niether does anyone else except for Benny himself. Like I said he is not the only one who has been accused on this case, but it seems like that is the focus. My opinion veries on this. I don't know anyone involved in this case, victim or suspects, so I can't put an opinion on PEOPLE, but I can put my opinion on the case. It disgusts me to read how cruel people are to each other. My prayers are out to Dorothy Dixon, her unborn baby and her one year old child. I hope they are in a better place and may the lord watch out for them. I also pray for the family members of Ms. Dixon. I am sorry for your loss. Also, my prayers are with the suspects. I hope they can find it in their hearts to realize what they have done, show remorse and learn. You made an INCREDIBLY BIG MISTAKE that you can't take back. Ms. Dixon will forgive you if you truely mean it and ask. I am not going to lie, coming not only from a another person but also a military member, it hurts to see the same things that Americans look down upon towards foreign countries and that I am fighting for are doing the same thing!! I am also sorry for friends and family of the suspects because this does affect you too. Be there for your friends because just because they made a mistake(or not), they too are human and need to be loved. Don't disown someone for mistakes because that doesn't help anything. You're just as guilty giving up on someone as that person is for being involved in a crime. Also, judging is not up to us, it is up to the Creator of your religion or beliefs. In my case, God.