Mohler Ritual Abuse Legal Case Articles

http://ritualabuse.us/2009/12/issue-90-january-2010/

describes crimes
Child incest pamphlets found in second search of Mohler property By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/24/09 A second police search of the Independence property of Burrell Mohler Sr., charged with an array of sexual offenses against some of his grandchildren, turned up child incest pamphlets. Also seized were more adult movies, including a pornographic DVD about having sex with “Grandma & Grandpa,” according to new documents released today. Other items listed on search warrant affidavits include what authorities are calling “incest porn” as well as homemade videotapes, a Focus on the Family film series, and a Book of Mormon Stories for Children. That and other Mormon literature taken from a house and a shed indicate that some of the materials could belong to Mohler’s oldest son, Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr., who also has lived in Independence. While the senior Mohler and most of his sons belonged to the Community of Christ Church, Ed Mohler, 53, joined the Mormon church in 1992 but was excommunicated in 2007 for personal conduct unrelated to child abuse. Mohler, 77, is in jail in Lexington, Mo., along with his four sons and a brother from Florida. Authorities say the men carried out years of sexual abuse on children as young as 5 in the extended family. Darrel Mohler is being held in Florida. In all, the Mohler men face 42 charges. The search of Mohler’s home in the 1300 block of Dodgion Street was conducted Friday by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities believe some of the alleged assaults against the Mohler children in past decades were photographed or taped. The first search of Mohler’s home turned up incest magazines, computers, tapes and recording equipment. Similarly, a search of a Columbia, Mo., house belonging to his son Jared Mohler, 48, also turned up computers, tapes and video equipment. http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1591849.html

Many back Missouri incest suspect By Judy L. Thomas, Donald Bradley and Brian Burnes MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS 11/23/2009 KANSAS CITY ....Mohler's reputation as the strict but good patriarch would come crashing down. He's in jail now, after allegations from at least three grandchildren that "sleepovers" on his farm often meant incestuous rape, and that when granddaddy sang "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," his hands ended up in wrong places. After allegations that their uncles wedded and bedded first-graders in a chicken coop and that their father did unspeakable things to them less than a mile from that little white church. Once the charges - 42 so far - were filed, it seemed the Mohler family was shattered as irreparably as the bad-memory jars the little girls purportedly buried and authorities earlier this month hoped to dig up....Yet all or nearly all six children of Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. gave credence to the tales of twisted family relationships, according to court documents. Nor did it help the senior Mohler's legal defense or public image as a grandfather when police hauled incest pornography out of his home in Independence, Mo. While some question the validity of the accusations, others may ask why authorities did not investigate earlier. In the 1980s or early '90s, at least some of the grandchildren reportedly went to their mother about the abuse, according to police documents. Instead of going to law enforcement, she told the head of her Mormon church. And nothing happened.
An Overland Park, Kan., man, who once shared custody of his 7-year-old son with an ex-wife who married into the Mohler family, said he tried to alert the Lafayette County sheriff, the Missouri Division of Family Services and a court-appointed guardian to what he feared was happening at the Mohler place.
"I notified everybody I could notify in February 2000 about this." Then, three months ago, an Independence police detective told the man there were multiple victims, "and my son was on the list." "I said: 'You mean it took them nine years to figure this out?'"
Many of the allegations directed at the Mohlers defy what experts encounter in sex abuse situations - group encounters involving children within the same family are rare, primarily because they are less apt to be kept secret. Still, there are cases of incest being so ingrained in a household that, for some families, "the act becomes normalized ... a family value, as common as Sunday dinners or watching football on TV," said Joseph Beck, a therapy director at Spofford Home, a Kansas City nonprofit that treats children with severe emotional problems. "Although it's abnormal, it becomes, 'This is how we do things,'" Beck said, adding that victims can be trained early in life not to trust the outside world.
Clinicians widely believe that child molestation, especially within a household, is driven more by urges to be violent and exert power than act out instilled sexual practices. "It's not about sex. It's about power and control," said Judith Ann Cohen, who specializes in child-rape cases at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. "A man who feels he is king of his castle gets to abuse his children because, well, you can if you're king of your castle." Beck agreed. "Usually it revolves around a single patriarch of a family, the man in power."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/27D98BFDEA8337BA86257677001848AB?OpenDocument

describes crimes
5 men charged with sex crimes against children AP By Bill Draper And Heather Hollingsworth 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. - Authorities on Wednesday were searching a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh pleaded for the public's help, saying investigators "believe that there are other victims out there, and we believe people in the public can give us more information." Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be bodies buried on the property outside Bates City, which is about 30 miles east of Kansas City. He refused to say to whom any of the bodies would have belonged. The property and a nearby home is owned by a man unrelated to the case who is cooperating with authorities....The five men were arrested Tuesday and are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality and forcing an 11-year-old to have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995....Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said....The woman who came forward claimed some of the men sexually abused her and her siblings, forced her to have sex with a dog, forced the siblings into fake marriages with relatives and forced her to watch as her brother was abused....."The church takes seriously the allegations that have been made and suspended the priesthood licenses of three lay ministers: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler," the church said in a statement. Booth said one of the men, whom she refused to identify, had been registered to work with children but that license has been terminated. The Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001. It has about 250,000 members worldwide. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_family_sex_crimes

Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. They said they were just little girls trying to bury their horror in jars around the farm. They wanted somebody to know what happened to them. So, according to authorities, the sisters wrote notes about the years of sexual abuse at the hands of older relatives and hid them in the earth. Then the children - one was a boy - buried the pain and anguish within themselves. Years would pass. But on Wednesday, authorities came to the farm south of Bates City, Mo., to dig for the notes - and possibly a body. With a man and his middle-aged sons in jail, investigators descended onto the rural property looking for evidence of rape, sodomy, bestiality and possible homicide....The five men were charged with 14 felonies, including forcible sodomy and forcible rape with a child less than 12 years old and use of a child in a sexual performance. The sheriff said he expected more charges to be filed....The woman who came forward alleged that the abuse against her began at age 5, when the girls were forced to "rotate" sleeping in the same bed as the senior Mohler.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1564393.html

describes crimes
Five charged for ritual child sex crimes By Donald Bradley, AAP November 12, 2009
A Missouri man and his four sons have been charged with the ritualistic sex abuse of his six grandchildren, and police are searching the family farm for buried bodies.
Officials declined to say whether the remains they were searching for were those of adults or children but said they were investigating allegations of murder. "There have been indications of a body or bodies in numerous locations," Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told a press conference.
The backhoes began digging before noon on Wednesday, and a more careful search was undertaken to find glass jars filled with notes the children wrote describing the horrific abuse.
"When the victims were younger they were writing down what had happened to them and placing it in those jars and subsequently burying it in the property in hopes to forget about the occurrences," said Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The alleged crimes came to light in August when a 26-year-old woman approached police with the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hands of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police and more charges are expected to be filed, Lowe said. "We believe there are other victims out there," Alumbaugh said. "Pedophiles don't stop with just one. They keep going." The woman described nine incidents of abuse which she believes began when she was about five and ended after she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion at age 11. The abuse included elaborate "wedding" ceremonies in which the girls would pick flowers to adorn their hair and wear special dresses....The alleged abuse occurred between 1988 and 1995 at the farm in Bates City, Missouri. The five men were formally charged with various counts of child sex abuse on Tuesday and remained in jail on Wednesday after a judge set bonds ranging from $US30,000 ($A32,275) to $US75,000 ($A80,690). Charged in the crime were: Burrell Edward Mohler Sr, 77; Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr, 51, the father of the six children; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; Roland Neil Mohler, 47; and David A Mohler, 52. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/6462729

Father Says Son Was Victim of Mohler Family - Kathy Quinn Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 12, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Lafayette County Sheriff said they are actively searching for more people who may have been sexually abused by the Mohler family men. Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and his four adult sons have been charged with forcible sodomy and rape involving children under the age of 12.
In their search for more victims, detectives have contacted people like Mark Young's son, who was seven at the time of the alleged abuse. Young confirmed to police that his son was abused by one of the Mohler men.
Mark Young said he and his former wife, Pamela Robison, had a child together and that woman later married Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr. Young said Robinson and his son would disappear for days.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-mohler-victim-young-111309,0,1950952.story

UPDATE: Story of alleged 7th victim detailed on K.C.'s WDAF-TV 11/16/2009 J. Noedel-Publisher - Kansas City's WDAF-TV (Fox4) has reported that in 1999, a Kansas City area man named Mark Young divorced his wife. His ex-wife got custody of the former-couple's seven year-old son. The ex-wife then married Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. Not long after, Mark Young met Burrell Mohler Jr.'s own ex-wife. Burrell's ex-wife -- whose own six children the Mohlers allegedly abused -- told Young that she had learned that "Jr. was quite fond of (Young's) son and liked to sleep with him." Young quickly sued for custody of his boy, alleging the child was being abused....The probable cause statement says that a granddaughter of Burrell Sr. remembers being raped by her grandfather when she was six years old. The now-grown woman and one of her sisters also are quoted in the probable cause statement alleging that their great uncle Darrel Mohler raped two of the girls when they were five and six years old, and then their grandfather threatened to kill them if they were not quiet.
The Associated Press has reported, "The original complaint in the case includes allegations of bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion."
WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City is reporting that three of the accused child abusers were lay ministers in an Independence, Mo. church.
A 77-year-old man and four of his middle-aged sons in western Missouri were charged yesterday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape of children between 1988 and 1995. According to the Kansas City Star, a woman has told authorities of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.ngnn.com/content/2009/nov/16/update-story-alleged-7th-victim-detailed-kcs-wdaf-tv

Daugther Say Mohler Jr. Forced Them To Kidnap, Kill Man
http://www.kctv5.com/video/21637741/index.html

Three-page sworn probable cause statement from one Cynthia L. Schroer.
http://www.fox4kc.com/media/acrobat/2009-11/50484435.pdf

Group Asks Church to Help Other Potential Victims Come Forward Rob Low, edited by Jason Vaughn November 13, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, MO - Activists representing people who have been abused by clergy members traveled to the metro area on Friday to ask the Community of Christ Church to help bring other potential victims of a family accused of multiple counts of child rape.
Three members of the Mohler family were lay ministers of the Independence-based church.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-mohler-church-snap-111309,0,7506727.story

Search in family sex abuse case also is for bodies, Lafayette sheriff says By Donald Bradley The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON | Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that “an individual or individuals were killed,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday as law enforcement personnel swarmed over a farm once owned by one of five men arrested the day before. Investigators also expect that even more than the five alleged victims of the decades-old “mock weddings” will come forward. Court documents indicate the case involved rape, sodomy and bestiality, Alumbaugh said at his Lexington office. Investigators see a “strong possibility” of more victims, he said. Five members of the Mohler family, a 77-year-old father and four of his middle-aged sons, were arrested Tuesday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape after a woman related stories of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1563043.html