PENNSYLVANIA – They lived outside society, hidden from the world in a squalid row house with no heat, electricity or running water. They had no birth certificates, no schooling, no immunisations or evidence of medical care – nothing to prove their existence.
Police in York, Pennsylvania are still piecing together how the parents of five children – ranging in age from 2 to 13 – managed to conceal them for so many years. And why.
“I don’t know what would possess them at all,” said detective Dana Ward, who tracked down the children after a child welfare agency received an anonymous tip about the family.
Ward charged Louann Bowers, 33, and Sinhue Johnson, 45, with five counts of child endangerment. They are scheduled to be in court on Sunday. Both are in custody.
Bowers ran away from “a very chaotic household” when she was 16 and “didn’t want to be found”, lawyer Ronald Gross said.
“I think, unfortunately, [her] desire to not be found by her family impacted on the children’s growth,” he said. “She realises now, ‘I should have done it differently’.”
Years of isolation have taken their toll on the siblings. Now living in foster homes, “some of the children suffer health and vision issues”, Ward wrote in an affidavit.
“None of the children are at their expected education levels, and there are possible mental health issues.”
The children have been vaccinated and the older ones have been enrolled in school.
York County Children and Youth Services became aware of the family through anonymous tips in 2003 and again in 2007, but police said Johnson refused to co-operate.
The agency got another anonymous referral last year. The agency contacted Johnson again, but he remained unco-operative, court documents state. That led caseworkers to obtain a court order granting them permission to enter the family’s dilapidated house. By the time they arrived, the family had fled.
Ward said it appeared all seven family members had lived in a single room on the second floor. He said all the utilities were shut off. Rainwater came through the leaky roof and was collected in buckets.
Police tracked the family to a hotel outside York. The detective found the children hiding in a bathroom: three girls and two boys. They left with investigators and refused to provide any information. Neighbours say they never saw them.
Charlton Shaw, 56, who lives several doors down, said he was unaware of the children’s existence until Johnson and Bowers were arrested. “I said, holy heck, how did they do that? You never heard a sound. No kids crying, no kids coming or going.”
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