Libia Vargas De Dinas: Diabetic janitor, 72, accidentally TRAPPED in holding cell for 3 days without food or insulin
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: An elderly janitor with diabetes spent three days without food and insulin after she was accidentally trapped inside an inmate holding cell at a Florida courthouse. Libia Vargas De Dinas, 72, was cleaning a cell at the Orange County Courthouse in Florida when the cell’s door closed and locked her in at around 9:30 pm on Friday, January 27.
“It was the weekend. No one would go up to the top floor, the 23rd floor,” she told WESH 2 News in Orlando. The janitor even left her janitorial cart and cell phone outside the holding cell. She was not discovered until around 6.40 am the following Monday morning. She reportedly spent three days without food and only drank water from a faucet above the toilet. The only thing she could sit or lie down on was a little wooden seat.
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Why was it difficult to locate Libia Vargas De Dinas?
Things got worse for Libia Vargas De Dinas as she didn’t even take any insulin before she was locked in. After being discovered, Vargas De Dinas, who gratefully sustained just a cut to her finger when she tried to open the cell's door, declined to go to the hospital and asked to be transferred to her home. She believes it was her faith that kept her alive during her days-long ordeal. “I prayed to God that he would take care of my health, body, mind, soul, and spirit,” she stated, as reported by WESH 2 News.
The Orange County authorities said there were no cameras in the holding cells which made it even hard for them to locate the elderly janitor. “Upon hearing of the plight of the janitorial employee, Orange County has mandated that the security company walk every space within the janitorial footprint,” a government statement read, according to WSAZ 3. The authorities continued by saying that the automatic doors have been removed to ensure events like this never happen in the future.
Similar incident at Midlands prison
In a similar incident, two contract workers were accidentally locked inside the Midlands Prison, where some of Ireland’s most dangerous criminals and killers are housed. It is known that the worker arrived at the Midlands Prison at 4 pm on September 07, 2022. They were supposed to finish work at approximately 10 pm, but could not find their way out. A prison worker reportedly found them at 7 am and they left the prison at 7.30 am. The Prison Service had commenced an investigation into the incident. The incident raised concerns among some people working in the prison about what they describe as a lax security regime.
