Missouri Sex Abuse Case Gets Even More Grotesque

Nov. 20, 2009— -- Bizarre new allegations are emerging from a sex abuse case that has already shocked Missouri with charges that six men subjected the family's children to assaults ranging from rape to bestiality.

Court documents released to ABCNews.com this week claim that at one point, several children belonging to Burrell Edward Mohler Jr. were forced to help kidnap a man, and were then given knives and ordered to kill him.

The children have also told investigators that they remembered a girl held captive in the family's Bates City, Mo., basement. Police state in the documents that a woman has come forward to say she was kept in the Mohlers' basement where she gave birth to two children.

Court papers allege that Mohler Jr. and his father, Burrell Edward Mohler Sr. buried the first of the infants in the basement's dirt floor and quickly covered the space with cement.

The newest accusations are in addition to charges that Mohler Sr. and Jr. along with four other adult male members of their family subjected six young children to years of abuse.

The grotesque nature of the allegations along with investigators' unwillingness to make hardly any of the physical evidence public has some questioning whether the charges could be true.

Some of the Mohler's relatives have described the suspects as God-fearing, hardworking folks.

"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, according to the Associated Press. "In this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. Have they found any evidence? I haven't heard of any."

Police would not say if a search of the house and surrounding property had turned up any evidence of the infant in the basement or the box the child was reportedly buried. Police also have not indicated they found any evidence of the man the children claimed was killed, even though they told investigators they helped dig a grave for him.

So far, no one has been charged with murder.

Police Confident in Charges Agaisnt Missouri Family Accused of Sex Abuse

The children, who are now adults, have previously said they recorded their abuse ordeals on paper stuffed in jars buried on the property, but there is no indication those jars have been found.

Nevertheless, authorities who searched the expansive, rural property where the Mohlers lived for decades say they are confident their evidence will stand up in court.

"If we weren't sure of our investigation, we wouldn't be putting forth this much effort," Missouri State Highway Patrol Corporal Bill Lowe told ABCNews.com. "In the scope of a trial, yes I believe we have good evidence."

Search warrant returns indicate that police took pieces of bone of undetermined origin, containers of soil, glass fragments and a broken glass jar, among other items.

Authorities also seized computer evidence and pornographic books and magazines, some of them promoting incest, from Mohler Sr.'s Independence, Mo., home, the Associated Press reported while citing court documents.

"Anything as far as evidentiary value cannot be discussed," Lowe said, but added that investigators have confidence in the validity victims' testimonies.

"If we didn't feel the charges were warranted, then they wouldn't have been applied for," he said.

Police said early on that they were looking for not only possible bodies, but other people who may have been sexually abused. It was the press coverage of the initial charges against the Mohlers that prompted a woman to call the police hotline and say that she had been held in the Mohlers' basement.

Police would not say whether she was the same female that the Mohler children remembered being held in the basement.

Lowe told ABCNews.com that a separate investigation has been opened into the woman's claims of captivity.

They are also investigating the possible murder of a man. The children told police they were used to help lure the victim, described by one ofthe children as 6'2" and 300 pounds and "in poor health," into Mohler Jr.'s car by claiming their father was having a heart attack.

One of the sisters, now 29, told police that once the victim was in the car, the girls and the man were taken back to the Mohler property.

"Mr. Mohler gave his daughtes knives to stab the victim with," the affidavit alleged. "When their father let the victim go, Mr. Mohler counted to three and then all of his daughters were required to attac[k] the victim."

The sister said she jumped onto the man's back and stabbed him, but it was her father's stabs to the man's front that allegedly killed him, the court documents state.

"Once the victim was dead, their father propped the victim's body up against a possible tree ... Burrell Mohler Jr. had [the now 29-year-old woman] stab the victim in his face after had had already died," the affidavit claimed.

Missouri Sex Abuse Charges: Devoted Family Men or Child Predators?

Bill Bruch, a former in-law of Mohler Sr., was in court this week to support his family, even though, he admitted, they might be guilty.

"I think that's possible," Bruch told ABCNews.com. "It's certainly a contrast to what I knew about him years ago when he was married to my cousin. It seems really out of character."

Charged in the case are Mohler Sr., 77, his brother Darrell Mohler, 72, and his Mohler Sr.'s four sons, Mohler Jr. 53, David Mohler, 52, Jared Mohler, 48, and Roland Mohler, 47.

The six alleged victims are Mohler Jr.'s children. Their charges include multiple counts of forcible rape of a child under the age of 14, two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance and forcible sodomy.

The other four men face charges of sexual abuse to varying degrees.

Bruch said that Mohler Sr. and his boys "were just a normal healthy family."

"I felt he was a devoted family man," Bruch said of the family patriarch. "He was active in his church activities and responsibilities."

The Community of Christ Church, where three of the Mohler men were lay ministers, have since cut their ties with the suspects.

Bruch said he and other members of the family would continue to attend the men's court hearing, simply to support their own.

"If I were in that position, I would certainly appreciate support from friends and family, even if I were guilty," he said.

The suspects, most of whom do not yet have lawyers, according to authorities, are next due in court in early December.

Shocking Claims of Abuse in Missouri

Among the more shocking claims from the children:

One of the sisters, now 26, claims her father, grandfather and two uncles forced her to partake in bestiality on the property. She also claimed she had an abortion at age 11.

Several of the sisters claimed the grandfather would line them up in a row to sodomize them.

Several of the girls claimed they were forced to partake in ceremonies where they would be "married" to one of their uncles, who would then rape them afterward in a trailer or chicken coop to consumate the marriage.