Jailed Woman Left for 4 Days

An illegal immigrant was forgotten in a courthouse holding cell in Springdale, Ark. for 4 days without food, water, or a toilet, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. With only sparse furniture and a lightbulb in her cell, Adriana Torres-Flores slept on the floor and drank her own urine to survive. The bailiff who forgot about her until yesterday is now “a broken man,” the county sheriff said.

Collared last year for selling pirated CDs, Torres-Flores was being held on a bail violation and faced deportation. She is now at home recuperating after hospital care. “She was feeling like she was going to die,” her daughter said. A probe is pending, and the sheriff vows to boost safety measures to avoid such mistakes in the future. (More Adriana Torres-Flores stories.)