Byline: Brianne Dopart

Oct. 9--Charges were dismissed Monday against a mentally retarded man held in a state hospital for 14 years despite having never been tried for his alleged crimes.

In a case laced with disappearing evidence, a possibly bogus confession and other glaring irregularities, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson ruled that the state must release 43-year-old Floyd Brown from the custody of Dorothea Dix Hospital.

Brown has been held at the hospital since 1993, when he was found incompetent to stand trial in the July 1993 slaying of 80-year-old Katherine Lynch in Anson County.

Brown allegedly confessed to beating Lynch to death and robbing her in ...