Upstate Couple Intended to Abuse Amish Sisters, Sheriff Says

Saturday, August 16, 2014

11:25 AM

By Unknown

In: 2014, News, Top story, Update

Upstate Couple Intended to Abuse Amish Sisters, Sheriff Says - New York Times

N.Y. / Region |Upstate Couple Intended to Abuse Amish Sisters, Sheriff Says

The couple charged with kidnapping two young Amish sisters from their farm in upstate New York intended to abuse them, the authorities said on Saturday.

Nicole Vaisey, 25, and Stephen Howells II, 39, were arrested on Friday and charged with two counts each of first-degree kidnapping, indicating, according to a criminal complaint, that there was “intent to inflict physical injury” or to violate or abuse the girls sexually.

Mr. Howells and Ms. Vaisey coaxed the sisters, Delila Miller, 7, and Fannie Miller, 12, to a car outside a roadside vegetable stand run by their family on Wednesday night, Kevin M. Wells, the St. Lawrence County sheriff, said at a news conference on Saturday.

The couple’s motive, he said, “was to take these girls from their home and victimize these girls.” When asked whether the couple had hurt them, Sheriff Wells declined to answer directly. “The girls have been victims of crimes,” he said.

A lawyer for Ms. Vaisey, Bradford C. Riendeau, said Ms. Vaisey made a “voluntary statement” to the authorities on Friday night, but that he had been asked by the St. Lawrence County district attorney’s office not to discuss details of the statement.

Mr. Riendeau was traveling to meet with Ms. Vaisey in jail on Saturday afternoon, he said. Mary E. Rain, the district attorney, said Mr. Howells had separate representation. Efforts to reach his lawyer were not immediately successful.

Late Thursday, the girls were “released by their captors” in an isolated area and walked to a nearby house in Richville, N.Y., Sheriff Wells said in an interview. The girls knocked on the door of Jeff Stinson and his wife, Pam, who recognized them from news reports about the abduction. The couple brought the girls in and gave them food, then Mr. Stinson drove them 20 miles back to their family’s farm in Oswegatchie, about 300 miles north of New York City.

Neither Mr. Howells nor Ms. Vaisey has a prior criminal record, Sheriff Wells said. Mr. Howells worked as a nurse at a hospital, and Ms. Vaisey worked as a dog groomer, he said.

Sheriff Wells said information provided by the girls about their captivity was “instrumental in being able to make the arrest.”

Sheriff Wells said the arrests most likely saved other children from abuse.

“There was the definite potential that there was going to be other victims from these two,” he said, adding, “They were looking for other opportunities to victimize.”