Charges of rape, sodomy, bestiality & homicide

LEXINGTON, Mo. - If the tales they told police are true, a group of children in rural Missouri grew up in a house of horror, where some were raped by relatives, then told to write down their memories in little glass jars and bury them in the ground.

Two decades later, though, as authorities work to piece together what happened, there's no evidence the jars have been found and other relatives say police have offered little evidence to support their accusations.

Burrell Mohler Sr., 77, and his four adult sons appeared in court yesterday in western Missouri where they were charged with additional sex crimes including rape and sodomy, and in a bizarre twist, a search warrant claims one of the suspects forced their victims to help kill and bury a man.

"These fellas have all had respectable jobs, and for this to come up so many years later," Ron Gamble, a relative of the accused family members said after yesterday's hearing. "In this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. . . . Have they found any evidence? I haven't heard of any."

Since authorities began their search of the Mohlers' former rural property outside Bates City on Nov. 10, the case has moved nearly every day to a new and sometimes darker place. One early court record detailed allegations of rape that included claims the children were assaulted with sharp objects and one girl was forced to have sexual contact with a dog.

As crews began their search for evidence, Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said he believed they may find a body or bodies and buried glass jars with notes written by children who may have documented sexual abuse. The children were told to write down bad memories and bury them there and "the memories would go away," said Sgt. Collin Stosberg of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Even more shocking claims lay ahead.

A search warrant, filed Nov. 9 but released yesterday, stated that three of the alleged children observed "several murders" and were forced to help kill and bury a man in April 1988.

The warrant said one of the accused, Burrell E. Mohler Jr., and the children followed a large man from an Independence shopping center to his home. They parked outside, then the children lured the man over to their car by telling him that their father was having a heart attack. When the man leaned over to help, Mohler Jr. allegedly "wrapped his arms around the victim's neck" and subdued him, the warrant said.

Mohler Jr. then drove the man to his father's property in Bates City. There, Mohler gave knives to the children and ordered them to attack the man and stab him, the warrant said.

One of the children then jumped on the man's back and stabbed him, but it was a stab wound from the adult that actually killed the victim, according to the warrant. The children were then forced to help dig a grave for the man and bury him.

But the warrant offers no details about the stabbing victim or why he had been argeted. Independence police said their department had no information about a person disappearing in April 1988 after driving away from an Independence mall. Nothing in the warrant suggests where the man lived.