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WICHITA (KANSAS) - A 35-YEAR-OLD woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time he called police had a phobia about leaving the bathroom, her boyfriend said.
The case drew nationwide attention after Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the woman's skin had grown around the seat in the two years she apparently was in the bathroom.
'We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,' Sheriff Whipple said. 'The hospital removed it.'
Her boyfriend Kory McFarren, 36, said he could not be certain how long Ms Pam Babcock stayed in the bathroom. He said she had a phobia about leaving the bathroom because of beatings she received as a child.
'I didn't do this to her. It was her choice. She is an adult, she made her own decision. It was my fault I should have gotten help for her sooner - I admit that. But after a while, you kind of get used to it,' Mr McFarren said in a phone interview from their Ness City home.
'It just kind of happened one day; she went in and had been in there a little while, the next time it was a little longer. Then she got it in her head she was going to stay - like it was a safe place for her,' he said.
But Mr McFarren said she moved around in the bathroom during that time, bathed and changed into the clothes he brought her. He brought food and water to her. He said that they had conversations in there and had an otherwise normal relationship - except it all happened in the bathroom.
He called police on Feb 27 to report that 'there was something wrong with his girlfriend', Sheriff Whipple said.
Mr McFarren said he finally called police after he became worried because Ms Babcock was acting groggy - like she did not know what was going on, except she was awake.
Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was 'somewhat disoriented', and her legs looked like they had atrophied, the sheriff said.
'She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,' he said. 'It is hard to imagine.'
Mr McFarren told investigators that he tried to coax her out of the bathroom every day.
'And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow',' Sheriff Whipple said. He said the county attorney will determine whether any charges should be filed against Mr McFarren, who works at an antique store.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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