[News anchor] Officials in the
Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia
have taken custody of a 13 year old girl,
who they say, was kept in such isolation by her parents,
that she never even learned to talk.
The girl still wore diapers,
and was uttering infantile noises,
when a social worker discovered the case
two weeks ago.
The authorities are hoping
she still may have a normal learning capacity.
Among the first to see the child
was Temple City detective,
Sergeant Frank Linley.
[Eerie music]
[Sgt. Linley] I already knew that
the child was 13 1/2 years old,
and I took one look at her,
and she wasn't much bigger
than my daughter, Beverly,
who had just turned seven about 3 months earlier.
And, I really had a hard time
conceiving of the idea that the child
was the age that she was.
The child, uh, obviously,
had been severely mistreated.
She was still in diapers, couldn't walk,
she had no verbal skills at all, at that point.
[Eerie music]
The last time I was on this street
was probably 30 years ago.
Yep, there it is.
Hasn't changed much.
The back yard looks the same.
It's all weeds and dead grass.
Looks the same as it did in 1970.
[Narrator] The house belonged to Clark Wiley.
A loner, Clark had turned his
back on the world,
after his mother had been killed
in a hit and run accident.
After the accident,
things in the Wiley house
would never be the same again.
[Sgt. Linley] The house was completely dark.
All the blinds were drawn.
There were no toys.
No clothes.
Nothing that would ever indicate to you
that a child of any age lived there.
[Eerie music. Passing cars whoosh.]
The child's bedroom was
back in this corner.
That was the bedroom.
The, uh, windows were covered
to about 3 inches from the top,
which was the only natural light
that had ever come in there,
in all the time the child was
in the bedroom.
The entire furnishing to the bedroom
consisted of a cage,
with a, uh, pull-down chicken wire lid,
and some type of -- piece of wire,
securing it, when they closed it down.
There was a potty chair,
with some kind of homemade strapping device.
[Narrator] For thirteen years,
Genie had spent her nights
locked in bed,
her days strapped to a potty chair.
During that time,
Clark had ordered his son John,
and wife Irene,
never to talk to her.
In her darkened room,
she had led a life
or near total isolation.
[Eerie music]
Even close neighbors
were completely unaware
of her presence.
[Neighbor] I came home from work,
and the police was here,
and they came to question us.
That's when we found --
found out what, you know,
happened, and uh, you know,
that they had a little girl