Kidnapping, murder, infant burial alleged in Missouri abuse case

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/17/missouri.child.sexual.abuse/index...

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 kill the 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.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/17/missouri.child.sexual.abuse/index.html?eref=...