Authorities identified a woman living in Georgia as the suspect in a decades-old string of child abuse cases related to an alleged cult based in Florida.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Anna Elizabeth Young, 75, married after moving to Georgia and had been using the last name “Anderson.”
Police were able to identify her as the woman they say ran a religious boarding school in Alachua County, Florida, where she was suspected of extensive abuse and causing the death of at least one child.
She was arrested at her Marietta home and faces a first-degree murder charge in Florida.
Authorities in that state believe she killed a toddler named Emon Harper and subjected other children to torture by exposure to chemicals, among other methods.
A chemical bath she alleged gave one 12-year-old girl left her covered in burns. She served a prison sentence on charges related to that incident after eight years of evading arrest.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office reportedly contacted its counterpart in Cobb County, Georgia, to report new information linking Young to the Harper’s death.
She had reportedly been indicted in Florida on suspicion of first-degree murder, a charge indicating premeditation.
ACSO spokesperson Art Forgey told reporters that investigators believe she was responsible for other crimes against children in Florida and beyond, the Gainesville Sun reported.
“We think there are many, many more,” he said. “We can document other states and other missing children that we believe are tied into this.”
He said the investigation remains underway, stating there is evidence of her involvement in “exorcising demons and other things like that … clear back to the ’60s.”
[Featured image: Anna Elizabeth Young/Cobb County Sheriff’s Office]