At first, people around this small farming town — even the horses grazing alongside the fence — seemed puzzled about the uniformed men who came to dig for the glass jars.
Now they know why. And their curiosity has turned to hand-over-the-mouth shock.
Police say that for years Burrell Mohler and his sons, well known in the Bates City community and active in the church, led a bizarre, ritualistic child sex ring that included bestiality and the rape and sodomy of the elder Mohler’s grandchildren.
They held mock weddings in which girls as young as five would be paired with their father, uncles or grandfather and sent to the privacy of a chicken coop for consummation.
Victims, now grown, told investigators that a German shepherd dog was involved in the torrent of sexual assaults that allegedly took place from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. The victims said they wrote notes detailing the horrific abuse and buried them in glass jars around the farm.
The notes were cries for help, written in hope that people might someday come to know of the horrors that transpired here.
But years passed before authorities finally came to dig for the jars — and possibly a body — with the local sheriff saying indications are that at least one person may have been killed.
This week, Mohler, 77, described as the ringleader of a family sex cult, was arrested and charged with multiple felony counts. Four of his middle-aged sons were also nabbed in coordinated raids.
Late Friday, the law enforcement net stretched like the family tree itself, reaching all the way to Florida to capture the elder’s brother, 72-year-old Darrel Mohler. Victims have now surfaced from other states, and reportedly even Canada.
“We still believe there are more victims out there and we want them to come forward,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said, adding that more charges would be filed in the coming days.
Mohler and his sons — Burrell Jr, 53; Roland, 47; Jared, 48; and David, 52 — are in jail in Lexington and scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for formal arraignment.
A judge said he would only accept cash bonds from any of the accused wishing to post bail, he barred them from contact with children.
The alleged crimes came to light in August, when a 26-year-old woman walked into the sheriff’s office in Lexington and spoke of the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hand of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police.
Why now, after all this time?
The cold truth is just now coming to the surface after years of being locked away. Officials initially approached the story, which at first seemed like nothing more than a wild tale, with skepticism. But investigators then spoke with a sister of the woman, who backed up her account.
After weeks of interviews with other witnesses, they heard the same stories of mock weddings and chicken coops. The sisters told of being forced to line up on a bed on their hands and knees while the family’s men raped them.
In court documents filed late on Friday, three young sisters were said to have been taken by Mohler to his brother’s home for a “sleepover.” When in bed, they heard whispering in the next room. Then Darrel Mohler entered the dark room and allegedly raped two of the girls.
As the story broke last week and investigators arrived with sniffer dogs and equipment to search for the jars, neighbors simply could not fathom the news reports. They drove slowly past the farm, which sits at a T-junction of two gravel roads south of town.
They knew these men, three of them lay clergy in the Community of Christ Church. The elder Mohler gave the Father’s Day sermon each year.
Digging at the farm ended on Thursday. Authorities have not said what, if any evidence, was found.
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