(CBS/AP) Charlotte and Roy Williams tried to avoid their neighbors, a rowdy bunch who blared music for days on end. But the noise may have been the least of their offenses.

Authorities say they held a 20-year-old black woman for about a week at their mobile home, where she was tortured, sexually assaulted and forced to eat rat droppings.

Megan Williams' captors, who were white, choked her with a cable cord, stabbed her in the leg while calling her a racial slur, poured hot water over her, made her drink from a toilet and beat her, according to criminal complaints.

State authorities said Wednesday they would not pursue hate crime charges because the other charges the suspects face carry stiffer penalties. But federal civil rights violations remain an option, U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller said.

"If I knowed that was happening up there, I would have gone up there myself to try and help that girl," said Roy Williams, who is not related to Megan Williams.

The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Megan Williams and her mother, Carmen Williams, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.

It wasn't until an anonymous tip led Logan County sheriff's deputies to the property on Saturday that Megan Williams' ordeal ended. She was not a random target and had had a "social relationship" with one of the suspects, Logan County Prosecutor Brian Abraham said.

Megan Williams remained hospitalized Wednesday in Charleston. The hospital declined to release any information about her condition.

Police tape remained at the scene in Big Creek, and empty beer cans filled a rusting shopping cart next to the mobile home. An empty TV dinner tray collected rainwater near the front door.

Like many in Big Creek, Roy Williams, 61, and his wife, Charlotte, 49, avoided the property.

"We know everyone over here in this area - except them," Charlotte Williams said. "We didn't want to know them."

The mobile home's residents - Bobby Brewster, 24, and his mother, Frankie Brewster, 49 - are among six people charged in the case.

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