.c The Associated Press
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- A man has been arrested for allegedly beating and
starving his disabled wife for 17 years, hiding her from the world on a
decrepit sailboat.
Victor Matthew David, 59, was arrested Tuesday on assault charges and jailed
on $150,000 bail. He could get up to 10 years in prison.
In 1997, police were called to the couple's sailboat by a social worker who
was trying to determine whether David was fraudulently collecting his wife's
disability checks. She has multiple sclerosis.
Police found Linda David, 50, wearing filthy, vomit-stained clothes in a room
covered with dog feces, according to court papers.
She was almost blind and barely able to speak. Her face was badly scarred,
and her arms had been broken and had healed without medical attention.
``I've talked to some of the officers who were involved at the time,'' olice
spokesman Elliot Woodall said Tuesday, ``and they said that it was among the
worst conditions they'd ever seen a human living in.''
Mrs. David, who is now recovering in a nursing home, said: ``No way I could
get off (the boat) to get help. That was home. I never had anywhere else.''
Prosecutors said David wasn't arrested for 2 1/2 more years because of the
difficulty in building a case. He had kept his wife so well-hidden that
neighbors thought she did not really exist, prosecutors said.
David said any injuries his wife suffered came when she fell out of a truck.