Relatives: Boy Missing for 10 Years Was Abused

A missing Kansas boy's adoptive parents, who failed to report his disappearance for nearly a decade,...

A missing Kansas boy's adoptive parents, who failed to report his disappearance for nearly a decade, are considered "people of interest" in the case as authorities expand their search nationwide, a sheriff said Monday. Investigators were focused on finding Adam Herrman, who was 11 when he disappeared in 1999 from a mobile home park in Towanda where he lived, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said.

(Courtesy Butler County Sheriff's Office)

Lawyer: Adam Herrman a Frequent Runaway

Eisenbise said Adam Herrman, who was homeschooled at the time of his disappearance, frequently ran away from home and that the Herrmans searched for him after he disappeared. He said they were afraid to report Adam missing for fear that the state would take away their other children.

The lawyer said Valerie Herrman admitted to spanking Adam with a belt the night he disappeared. "That's probably the reason he left for the last time," Eisenbise said.

Police records show that the Herrmans called police at least once in 1998 to report that Adam Herrman had left home after being grounded. He returned an hour later, police said. Police were called on another occasion in 1994 when he was not on the school bus when it arrived home. He was located soon after.

Other family members said the Herrmans recently said they were afraid to call the police after Adam Herrman disappeared.

Justin Herrman and Valerie Herrman's brother, Sam Bush, said the couple told them in 1999 that he had been returned to state custody because they couldn't handle him anymore. When relatives asked about Adam Herrman as the years passed, the Herrmans would give updates on his whereabouts, at one point saying he was in a state mental hospital, Herrman and Bush said.

"It was all lies," Bush said.

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Linda Bush, Valerie Herrman's former sister-in-law, said Adam Herrman was timid. He liked trucks and camping, said Justin Herrman.

"He reminded me of a forest creature who didn't know if he would be attacked," said Linda Bush.

They said Valerie Herrman was loving toward her biological children but not toward Adam Herrman. Linda Bush said Valerie Herrman told her on several occasions that she couldn't stand him and that the boy "gives me the creeps."

Sam Bush said he once walked into the bathroom and saw Adam Herrman sleeping in the bathtub without a pillow or blankets. When Sam Bush asked about it, Valerie Herrman said the boy was being punished because he wet the bed, Sam Bush said.

He claims she later told him Adam Herrman was sleeping in the bathroom because he was mentally disturbed. Sam Bush said she told him she had found a knife under the boy's bed and he said he was going to kill her in her sleep.

Eisenbise said the Herrmans admitted that Adam was forced to sleep in the tub sometimes, but only because the boy had told a psychiatrist that he wanted to kill his adopted parents. Eisenbise said the psychiatrist advised the Herrmans to keep Adam in a locked room at night.

Justin Herrman said his mother often would not feed the boy and would hit him, though he said his father never abused the boy. On one occasion when Adam Herrman was 4 or 5, he said, he called the police after his mother pulled his hair and threw him against a wall.

By the time the police had arrived, he said, his mother had persuaded him to tell the police that he had made the story up. The officers lectured him about lying, but did nothing else, he said. The Derby police say they do not have a record of an abuse call from Justin Herrman during the 1990s.