Five of the six Mohler family members charged with sex crimes – including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance – were charged with 15 additional counts of rape and sodomy on Tuesday.
Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence, was charged with new rape and sodomy charges, as well as the use of a child in a sexual performance, which prosecutors say stem from activities from 1984 to 1989.
His four sons, Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48, of Columbia, Mo.,; David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa; and Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence, were charged with the new rape counts Tuesday in Lafayette County.
During a court appearance Tuesday, four of the five men said they were working to find attorneys, while Jared Leroy Mohler said he had hired a lawyer.
The new charges stemmed from reports of a 29-year-old woman, who told police and investigators she and three other children were bound at the wrists and blindfolded while three men raped them, according to The Associated Press.
Sgt. Colin Stosberg of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Tuesday that Darrel Wayne Mohler, 72, of Silver Springs, Fla., brother of Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., had an extradition hearing in Florida. No additional charges were filed against him. When he will be brought to Missouri to face charges, Stosberg could not say.
Stosberg also wouldn’t comment on reports that the suspects forced their victims to help kill and bury a man in 1988.
“We’re investigating,” Stosberg said. “We can’t comment.”
Stosberg said investigators stopped digging Friday at the Mohler property for what police believed were glass jars and possible bodies. Stosberg said the victims may have put written accounts inside the jar.
Stosberg also wouldn’t comment on reports of a search warrant, filed Monday, indicating that three of the alleged abuse victims observed “several murders” and were forced to help kill and bury a man, who was reportedly abducted from his house in Independence in April 1988.
According to the search warrant affidavit, the sisters said Burrell E. Mohler Jr. drove them to Independence Center, where they watched a man get into his car. They followed him home and were told to tell him that their father was having a heart attack and that they needed help.
When he leaned in close, Burrell E. Mohler Jr. grabbed and subdued him, the affidavit said. They were driven back to the farm, blindfolded. Mohler allegedly gave the female victims knives to stab the man after he said the man would kill them if they didn’t kill him first.
