The short life and long tortured death of Laura Cummings

Abused victim was mentally disabled

A good night for Laura Cummings meant being allowed to sleep on the kitchen floor in her familys North Collins home.

Usually in the weeks leading up to her death, she was forced to sleep shackled to a metal chair with a sack over her face.

Days were even more nightmarish for the 23-year-old mentally disabled woman, who was held captive and brutalized, allegedly by her own mother and half brother, according to an Erie County Grand Jury indictment returned Friday.

Cummings short life ended Jan. 21 with a long, tortuous death and a trail of missed chances to get her to safety.

A grand jury indicted Cummings mother, Eva M. Cummings, 51, and her half brother, Luke J. Wright, 31, on charges related to the homicide, but authorities continued to be confounded by the apparent lack of community concern for the defenseless womans welfare.

There were a lot of people who knew what was going on and said nothing, and that is a sad commentary on the human condition, said District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III.

Clues and reports about mistreatment inside the apartment at 2052 Sherman Ave. popped up frequently over the years.

Siblings and other relatives said they called Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services. Whispers floated around town, including at the food pantry, that Cummings was being tied up at home.

This is the problem today nobody wants to get involved, added Caroline Lee, who lives down the street from the Cummings apartment.

The pantry was one of the few places in town where Laura Cummings, a petite woman with short brown hair who rarely made eye contact with people, was seen in public away from her home.

Lee called Laura Cummings younger brother, Richard, about the suspected abuse, and Richard contacted Erie County Adult Protective Services.

They never went inside the household and they never filed for a warrant to go inside, said Richard Cummings, who is serving in the Air Force and is stationed in North Carolina. Im wondering why ... Adult Protective Services didnt do anything about it.

Instead, the abuse intensified over the last few months of Lauras life, said investigators. Starting in November, theres a significant escalation of her debasement as a human being, Senior Trial Counsel Thomas M. Finnerty of the DAs Office said. It was happening on a daily or nightly basis.

Finnerty, who has prosecuted a number of heinous crimes in his 17 years in the DAs office, called it the worst case Ive ever seen.

Its sadistic, and its allegedly sustained over a long period of time, he said.

That was especially true of the unlawful imprisonment of Laura Cummings, in the weeks preceding her death.

Shes restrained more often than shes not, Sheriffs Capt. Ronald L. Kenyon said.

At other times, she was treated as an inanimate object, draped with a blanket so that visitors who stopped by the apartment wouldnt know she was there, according to authorities.

Eva Cummings and Luke Wright were indicted on a total of 15 charges in connection with the suffocation death of Laura Cummings. They are expected to be arraigned at 2 p.m. Monday before Erie County Court Judge Sheila A. DiTullio.

Eva Cummings faces a second-degree murder charge, while her son is charged with five sexual assault charges. Both are accused of using a broomstick to sexually attack the young woman, as well as forcing her to touch her own waste and scalding her with hot water, according to the indictment papers.

Mother and son also are accused of unlawfully imprisoning Laura Cummings because of her mental disability an elevated hate crime charge.

Its a hate crime because its motivated in whole or substantial part by the belief or perception regarding the victims disability, Sedita said.

Eva Cummings could face a possible sentence of 83 years to life on five charges, while her son could face 142 years to life on 10 charges, prosecutors said.

The charges, based on extensive investigation by four Erie County sheriffs detectives and statements from both suspects, paint an extremely troubling portrait of the alleged abuse against the young woman who talked with a speech impediment, had difficulty swallowing food and was said to have the mental capacity of a pre-teenage girl.

Sedita and Kenyon praised sheriffs Detectives Gregory McCarthy, Dennis Fitzgibbon, Matthew Noecker and Jack Graham.

The efforts of the Sheriffs Department were dogged, Sedita said. They didnt stop. They interviewed basically the whole town of North Collins.

Both mother and son are charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a mentally disabled person.

If the allegations are true, it is clear that the defendants did not treat Laura as a human being, said Sedita. In fact, if these allegations are true, one wonders if either one of them even considered Laura to be a human being.

Laura Cummings tragic life might have gone in a different direction on several occasions, starting when she was a youngster, according to various sources.

As a child, she and other siblings were placed with foster families in Florida that tried unsuccessfully to adopt the children, said Patricia Wright, Lauras half-sister.

The Cummings household, in North Collins and prior to that in Olean, was well-known to Child Protective Services in Erie and Cattaraugus counties, family members said.

Patricia Wright, 27, said she reported abuse to Erie County Child Protective Services and Erie County Family Court more than a decade ago.

I stopped talking to them when I was 17 years old because there was nothing being done, said Wright, who was legally adopted by a family friend and is pursuing a bachelors degree in forestry management. I kept trying to tell them, You need to get those kids out of there. And they said, No theres nothing we can do.

Patricia Wright said she was physically abused for years, resulting in a broken ankle and cracked vertebrae in her back.

I would get hit with baseball bats, spoons anything that mom could grab a hold of, she said. We got hurt every day. She didnt take us to the hospital.

She was even locked in a closet for a week, and her brother, Luke, sneaked her bread and water, she said.

After spending time at a facility for teenagers, Patricia Wright was legally adopted by Roland Grotke, a neighbor of her grandparents in East Otto.

She said she tried to return to the home and rescue Laura, but was rebuffed by her mother.

I knew my Mom was kind of off upstairs, said Patricia Wright. I knew she was incapable of taking care of a person like Laura, who needed that extra help.

Neither Richard Cummings nor Patricia Wright had been allowed to visit Laura Cummings in recent years, they said.

But other relatives were in regular contact with her, including another brother, Eddie Cummings, who lived in the house but is not a suspect in the abuse. Eddie Cummings, who left the house for work each morning by 7 a.m. and didnt return until after 9 p.m., declined to speak with The News.

Sources said Joyce Landahl, a cousin of Eva Cummings who also is legal guardian of Eva Cummings youngest daughter, made regular visits to the Cummings home, along with a family friend named Sue.

Everyone thinks I shouldve known more, said Landahl. I didnt know what was going on. I wish I knew more, but I dont know nothing.

Landahl visited the house to drop off food, but didnt go inside because she has difficulty climbing stairs, she said.

Eva Cummings could be verbally abusive to Laura, sometimes screaming at her daughter to clean up faster, said Landahl.

And when the children were younger, Landahl said she reported Eva Cummings on multiple occasions to Child Protective Services for neglect, not abuse.

She just wasnt a good parent in that respect, but I never seen her hurt nobody, said Landahl.

And Luke, she added, didnt exhibit violent behavior, either.

I never wouldve dreamed Lukey would do that. I cant imagine it, she said. I never seen nothing abusive with him. Never, ever.

Mark Engler, who owns the property where Laura was killed, often hired Luke Wright for odd jobs and was at the home the day of Lauras death to pick up Luke.

A lot of people are shocked I didnt know more, said Engler, of Angola. But it was nothing for me to knock on the door and walk in, and I never saw anything unusual.