HOUSTON (AP) - One of three men found malnourished and held against their will in a dungeon-like garage of a Houston house has died.
A Houston police statement Tuesday says 79-year-old William Merle Greenawalt died Thursday. Two other former captives, 59-year-old Dean Cottingham and 64-year-old John Edward Padget, are out of the hospital and in the care of Adult Protective Services.
Walter Renard Jones was arrested at the scene Aug. 19, when the men were found. The 31-year-old Houston man remains jailed on two counts of injury to the elderly with serious bodily injury. A message left with his attorney wasn't returned.
Police say the men told investigators they were forced to live in the garage so their captor could cash their assistance checks.