NORCO, Calif. (AP) -- For years, neighbors thought something was amiss at 1531 Elm Dr. But until last week, no one dared cross the vague line that separates a good neighbor from a meddlesome one.
When finally summoned Tuesday, paramedics found a little girl chained to a bed in a darkened room so filled with trash and feces that her mother tried to blanket the putrid smell with baby powder.So repulsive was the home in rural Southern California, officials said, that rescuers brought the girl out through a window to avoid walking back in the stench.
"I would have given anything in the world to be wrong," said DeVora Antisdel, a former Elm Drive resident who finally made the call that led to the girl's rescue. "Unfortunately, it's all too real."
Paramedics estimated that the girl, Betty, is about 6 years old. She was in fair condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Julie Smith.
The child's mother, Cindi Sue Topper, and her grandfather, Loren Bess, are in custody at a Riverside County jail on $250,000 bail each. They have pleaded not guilty to felony charges of child endangerment and false imprisonment.
Sheriff's officials say Topper told authorities that Betty had been chained off and on for five years.
Following the rescue, neighbors recalled strange behavior by Topper, and said Bess was a recluse. But they said there were no obvious signs of neglect.
Inaction by neighbors is common in such cases, said retired University of Southern California psychology professor Ward Edwards. When someone calls authorities based only on suspicions, there is a good chance that nothing is out of place -- and a high probability of being ostracized as a nosy neighbor, he said.
"How much do you have to lose, how much you have to gain is crucial to every decision," Edwards said. "It's hard to be a whistleblower. . . . It's sort of like a home alarm system. How many times has it gone off, and how many times should it have gone off?"
Antisdel and her former landlord, David Beck, were among those who didn't want to jump to conclusions. But then Beck saw the little girl in a parking lot about a year ago and though she was clean, she seemed withdrawn. Beck began questioning everyone from the mail carrier to the garbage man. Nobody knew much.
They did know that Topper was attacked in 1983 by an ex-boyfriend in Santa Ana.
An Orange County prosecutor, Richard King, has said that a doctor or counselor found that the attack left Topper with "the mental capacity of a fifth-grader."
Beck admits he didn't want to be the one to call authorities even though neighbors already branded him the nosy one. Antisdel, who moved out of the area a year ago, called. And she doesn't care what Elm Drive residents label her.
Betty, meanwhile, is now a ward of the county.