Three alleged victims of years-ago child sex abuse within a Missouri
family told authorities they were forced by one of the accused to kill
a man after he was kidnapped, according to new court documents filed in
the case.
In addition, another alleged victim told police that
she was held captive in the basement of a home and abused by five of
the suspects, and that the suspects buried her baby in the basement
after she became pregnant the first of two times, the documents say.
Six family members are in custody on various charges related to the
abuse allegations. The alleged victims -- all now adults -- came to
police with stories of sexual performances, mock weddings, rape with
various objects and a forced abortion during their childhoods,
according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB in Kansas City. CNN does not identify alleged sexual assault victims.
The newest documents -- affidavits seeking search warrants -- were obtained by CNN affiliate WDAF
in Kansas City. In them, authorities say several alleged victims told
them that they were in a car with suspect Burrell E. Mohler Jr., now
53, when he followed a man home from an Independence, Missouri,
shopping center in April 1988.
Once there, Mohler told the children to
get out of the car and tell the man that Mohler was having a heart
attack and needed help. They did, and when the man leaned in to look at
him, Mohler wrapped his arm around the man's neck and "subdued him very
quickly," the court documents say.
He told them to get back in
the car, the victims alleged, and drove them and the man to a farm
belonging to his father, Burrell Mohler Sr., now 77, another suspect in
the case, according to the documents. He then told the children to killthe man, giving them knives to stab him with and telling the children
that the man would kill them unless they killed him first. Then, he
forced the children to dig a grave and bury the man, the documents say.
A
search warrant has been executed on the property, which Mohler no
longer owns. The documents say that glass fragments, an unknown kind of
bone, a credit card, eyeglasses, the sole of a shoe and a broken glass
jar were found.
The alleged victims told police they "had observed several murders," the documents say.
The
second search warrant affidavit says that after media coverage of the
arrests, a woman said she was held on the elder Mohler's property in a
basement and abused by five of the suspects. Some of the other alleged
victims, the document says, have also told police about a girl "who
lived in the basement," the documents said.
"She recalls becoming pregnant twice while in captivity,"
the documents said. "Following her delivery of the first baby, she
recounts that Burrell E. Mohler Sr. and Burrell E. Mohler Jr. buried
the infant in the basement, which at that time had a dirt floor. The
infant was in a box. Within days of this event, the basement floor was
covered with a layer of concrete."
On November 11, police used
ground-penetrating radar to examine the floor, with the consent of the
current owner, the affidavit said. An "anomaly ... consistent with the
shape of a box" could be seen, the documents said.
The search warrant was executed, according to the documents, and four jars of soil were taken from the basement.
Burrell Mohler Sr. was arrested last week, along with his sons Burrell
Mohler Jr.; David A. Mohler, 52; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; and Roland
Neil Mohler, 47. Charges against them include rape, deviate sexual assault and using a child in sexual performance, according to a Missouri state courts online system.
Fifteen
additional charges were added Monday after another alleged victim came
forward, WDAF reported. Dozens of family members attended a court
hearing for the suspects Tuesday, saying the allegations against the
men have been fabricated, the station said.
A sixth family
member, Darrel Mohler, was arrested in Florida on Friday, authorities
said. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said he faces two
counts of rape. KSHB said that Darrel Mohler, 72, is Burrell Mohler
Sr.'s younger brother.
The alleged abuse
took place from the mid-1980s until 1995 and possibly beyond, the
sheriff has said. The documents provide graphic details of the alleged
abuse provided by one of the alleged victims. All of the charges stem
from those allegations, he said.
Burrell Mohler Sr., David
Mohler and Jared Mohler are all lay ministers in the Community of
Christ, the Independence, Missouri-based organization said in a
statement. None of the three served in leadership roles or worked with
children, the group said.
The Community of
Christ is an offshoot of the modern-day Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. It split off from the Mormon church in the 1800s,
and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints until 2000, when it changed to the current name.
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