9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[News anchor] Officials in the [br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have taken custody of a 13 year old girl,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who they say, was kept in such isolation[br]by her parents,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that she never even learned to talk.

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The girl still wore diapers,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and was uttering infantile noises,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when a social worker discovered the case

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
two weeks ago.

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The authorities are hoping

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she still may have a normal[br]learning capacity.

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Among the first to see the child

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was Temple City detective,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sergeant Frank Linley.

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[Eerie music]

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[Sgt. Linley] I already knew that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the child was 13 1/2 years old,

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and I took one look at her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she wasn't much bigger

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than my daughter, Beverly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who had just turned seven[br]about 3 months earlier.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, I really had a hard time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
conceiving of the idea that the child

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was the age that she was.

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The child, uh, obviously,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had been severely mistreated.

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She was still in diapers, couldn't walk,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she had no verbal skills at all,[br]at that point.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Eerie music]

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The last time I was on this street

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
was probably 30 years ago.

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Yep, there it is.

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Hasn't changed much.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The back yard looks the same.

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It's all weeds and dead grass.

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Looks the same as it did in 1970.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] The house belonged[br]to Clark Wiley.

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A loner, Clark had turned his

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
back on the world,

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after his mother had been killed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a hit and run accident.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After the accident,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
things in the Wiley house

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
would never be the same again.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Sgt. Linley] The house was[br]completely dark.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All the blinds were drawn.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There were no toys.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
No clothes.

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Nothing that would ever[br]indicate to you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that a child of any age[br]lived there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Eerie music. Passing cars whoosh.]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The child's bedroom was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
back in this corner.

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That was the bedroom.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The, uh, windows were covered

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to about 3 inches from the top,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which was the only natural light

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that had ever come in there,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in all the time the child was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the bedroom.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The entire furnishing to the bedroom

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
consisted of a cage,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with a, uh, pull-down chicken wire lid,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and some type of -- piece of wire,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
securing it, when they closed it down.

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There was a potty chair,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with some kind of homemade[br]strapping device.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] For thirteen years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie had spent her nights

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
locked in bed,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
her days strapped [br]to a potty chair.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
During that time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Clark had ordered his son John,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and wife Irene,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
never to talk to her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In her darkened room,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she had led a life

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or near total isolation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Eerie music]

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Even close neighbors

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
were completely unaware

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of her presence.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Neighbor] I came home from work,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the police was here,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they came to question us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's when we found --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
found out what, you know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
happened, and uh, you know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that they had a little girl.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nobody knew. Nobody knew before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, uh, then we found out

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what happened, how she was treated.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, everybody was shocked,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and, just -- unbelievable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For their whole marriage,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Clark had imposed his will on Irene.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Blind with cataracts,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she had been too scared to resist.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But one day, something broke.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
While Clark was out buying groceries,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she seized her chance, and fled.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was the first glimpse[br]the world would have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of Clark and Irene's dark secret.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Sgt. Linley] I met Clark and Irene

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at Temple City sheriff station,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and they were both [br]under arrest, at the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When we interviewed Irene,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she would make no mention

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the family, whatsoever;

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
particularly, the children.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I attempted, along with my partner,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to interview Clark.

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He refused to talk to us.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He wouldn't say a word.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He never even acknowledged

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that he understood[br]what we were talking about.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Reporter] Mr. Wiley?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Clark] Yes ma'am.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Why did you keep your daughter

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a room --

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[Lawyer] Mr. Wiley has no comment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Clark] No comment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Lawyer] We haven't had time to discuss[br]the charges.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We haven't even seen them.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Unable to face the truth,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Clark took matters into his own hands.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Eerie music]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[News announcer] This morning,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the authorities reported

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that 70 year old Clark Wiley

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
shot and killed himself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
just before he was to go to court

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and be arraigned

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for child abuse.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] After 13 years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie was, at last, free.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For scientists, she was just the case

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they had been waiting for.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For 13 years,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie had lived a life

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of complete isolation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Raised in a city bedroom,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie was as much a feral child

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as if she had been

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
brought up by wolves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
At 13, she was the size

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of a six year old.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Worst of all,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she had never been taught to speak.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The question now:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Could she ever learn?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Traffic softly whooshes.]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie's case was so [br]scientifically important,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the government funded[br]a team of scientists

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to help answer the many questions[br]she posed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Clomps up the steps.]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Two of the scientists

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who would become especially important[br]to Genie

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
were child psychologist James Kent,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and linguist Susan Curtiss.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan] So good to see you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Neither had ever

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
encountered a case

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as extreme as Genie's.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[James Kent] We looked at her

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as a newborn, in a way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
even though we know she hadn't.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She came with 13 years

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of memories and experiences,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not all of them wonderful.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Most of them not, I think.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so, we thought we needed

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to start to expose her

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to what the would was going to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
be like for her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
outside the hospital bed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] To Genie,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
everything was a new experience.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[James Kent] We did what you would do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with your own kids,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if you were introducing them[br]to the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Take them out,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hold them up, and show them. [Chuckles]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sort of judge, from how they reacted,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
whether this was too much,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or not enough.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And you could move on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and do the next thing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Genie was making

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
amazing progress.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As the experts looked on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they realized that she might[br]be the answer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the question that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had troubled science for so long.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan Curtiss] So, we

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
seized this wonderful opportunity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that she provided us,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in as loving a way as we could,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but, using it to...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
finally get our chance to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
address, head on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
specific hypotheses,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and notions about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
human language,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the human mind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] These hypotheses

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
were based on the latest ideas

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about how children's brains developed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to the theory,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
young children

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
could only learn certain things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at certain times,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
called 'critical periods.'

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Language was one of these

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
'critical periods.'

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to the theory,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie, who was now a teenager,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had missed her chance forever.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But, incredibly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie seemed to be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
proving the theory wrong.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As this footage shows,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie was blossoming.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Not only was she delighted

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by the world around her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but she was learning the words

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for the new things she was seeing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan Curtiss] She was extremely

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
interested in everything around her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She wanted to know the word

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for everything around her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She wanted to engage people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all around her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was not mentally deficient.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Her lights were on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and everyone who worked with her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from teachers, to therapists,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to me, knew

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that she was not retarded.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was clear as day.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, as she began to learn

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
more and more words,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
hundreds of words,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
much more rapidly

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than they ever imagined,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and stringing them together,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I began to think that maybe

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I will be wrong.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Maybe she will be the one

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who will prove

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that this hypothesis is incorrect.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] But Genie could not escape

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the effects of her past so easily.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was still haunted

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by her traumatic upbringing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
trapped by the memories

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the awful fate she had suffered.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Linguistically, she had stopped[br]making progress.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan Curtiss] She learned tons of words.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She has an enormous vocabulary.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But language is not words.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Language is grammar.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Language is sentences.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How do you make a sentence?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What can be a sentence?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What is a sentence?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How do you automatically know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
something is a sentence?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, it wasn't because she was[br]cognitively deficient,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in other respects.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was because she was[br]cognitively deficient

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in this island of human mind,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the mental faculty that we call[br]'grammar.'

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] At the time[br]Genie was found,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
brain science was in its infancy.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Today, we have a much clearer picture

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of what actually happens

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in cases of extreme neglect,[br]like Genie's.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Dr. Bruce Perry] In Genie's brain,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the left part of her brain, her cortex,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that has those neural systems

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
responsible for speech and language,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because she never heard any words,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and because she was never talked --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
spoken to very often,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they didn't get stimulated.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, because they weren't stimulated,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they got smaller, and less functional,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and got disconnected, and ultimately,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that part of the brain literally,[br]physically changes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Today,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with modern imaging technology,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can actually see what happens

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the brains of feral children.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The effects are shocking.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Without normal stimulation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their brains are smaller, and malformed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The earlier this neglect begins,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the longer it carries on,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the worse the damage will be.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Starved of stimulation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie's brain had simply

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not developed the capacity[br]for language.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, now that she was [br]a teenager,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she would never be able to learn.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Despite this,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie continued to be a close part

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of everyone's life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But, there was more trouble ahead.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[James Kent] Children have to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
belong to somebody when they grow up,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she was still a child,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she needed a family to belong to.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, that's what we would've liked.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A family that she could belong to.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, that's not what happened,[br]unfortunately.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What did happen

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
um, is about, I think,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the worst outcome[br]we would've envisioned.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
On her 18th birthday,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie moved back [br]with her mother Irene,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into the house in which

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she had been so terribly abused.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But after only a few weeks,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it was clear that Irene couldn't cope.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
From here, Genie was moved[br]into state care,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with terrible consequences.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan Curtiss] I was a student,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and people wouldn't listen to me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
People who needed to intervene

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
did not listen to me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, so, I spent lots and lots of time

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on the phone, pleading with people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to intervene, and save this person

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who had had the worst experience[br]of deprivation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and isolation, in all recorded[br]medical history.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Genie moved

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from home to home,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sometimes with the very people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who served as her therapists.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This potential conflict of interests

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
raised tensions among the many people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
involved in her life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A tug of war erupted over the child.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As Genie's condition deteriorated,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Irene decided that Susan Curtiss

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the other academics had become[br]too close to Genie.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A lawsuit followed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Susan Curtiss] I went from being asked

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to be her guardian,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to, one week later,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
being prevented from seeing her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or phoning her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ever since then, I've been prevented

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from having any contact, at all.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, although I have lots of,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you know, I'm still a scientist,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm still interested in knowing things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about her language now, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all kinds of interesting things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would like to pursue academically,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
primarily I would just like to see her.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[Narrator] Now a ward of the court,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Genie lives in an adult care home

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
somewhere in Los Angeles,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
prevented from seeing the people

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who once meant so much to her.