View source for Susan Wiley/Reno Article

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[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=view&dbid=6169&iid=newsrenoeg.1970_11_18_0023&rc=229,2200,331,2242;351,2200,473,2242;4343,183,4449,229&fn=&ln=Record+Clark+Wiley+from+1970-1970&st=d&ssrc=&pid=508938263 ''Reno Evening Gazette'' (Reno, Nevada), 18 Nov 1970]
"Doctors claim girl isolated since birth"

Arcadia, Calif (AP) &mdash; Sheriff's deputies have arrested the parents of a 13-year-old girl who doctors say can't talk and has the mind of an infant because she was kept in virtual isolation since birth.

Susan Wiley, wide-eyed and brown-haired, spent her time inside her parent's modest two-bedroom home in this Los Angeles suburb except for brief periods when she played in the yard or sat on the porch, deputies said.

She walks with a stopped shuffle like an aged person and her arms and bone structure are extremely thin, doctors said.

They placed her mental development as equal to that of a 12- to 18-month-old infant, said she still wore diapers, and that her size was that of a 10-year-old.

The doctors said Susan could become physically normal after treatment but that they were unsure about possible mental progress.

Deputies said Susan had been hospitalized since Nov. 4.  The case was made public after her parents were arrested Monday.

Clark Wiley, 70, and his estranged wife Irene, 50, were booked for investigation of child abuse and released on $1,250 bail each.

Sheriff's investigators said a social worker brought the case to their attention when Mrs. Wiley left her husband, took Susan to live with the girl's grandmother in nearby Monterey Park and applied for welfare.

No motive for the girl's alleged treatment was advanced by authorities.

&mdash; Transcribed Apr 2008, from the original image, by Will Johnson, [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist