N.Y. couple arrested in Amish kidnapping

Officials search a roadside field in Oswegatchie, N.Y., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2104, for clues in the abduction of two Amish girls who were taken from a vegetable stand on the evening before. Amish sisters Delila, 6 and Fannie Miller, 12, were abducted on about 7:30 p.m., Wednesday evening from a vegetable stand in front of their home. (AP Photo/Watertown Daily Times, Melanie Kimber-Lago)
Officials search a roadside field in Oswegatchie, N.Y., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2104, for clues in the abduction of two Amish girls who were taken from a vegetable stand on the evening before. Amish sisters Delila, 6 and Fannie Miller, 12, were abducted on about 7:30 p.m., Wednesday evening from a vegetable stand in front of their home. (AP Photo/Watertown Daily Times, Melanie Kimber-Lago)

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A northern New York couple was arrested Friday in the kidnapping of two Amish sisters from their family's roadside farm stand.

St. Lawrence County's District Attorney Mary Rain said Stephen Howells II, 39, and Nicole Vaisey, 25, both of Hermon, were each charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping.

She said they were in custody awaiting arraignment late Friday and additional charges were possible.

Earlier Friday, authorities said they weren't releasing any details about what happened to the girls during their day-long disappearance.

They said they didn't want to compromise a potential prosecution.

Delila Miller, 7, and Fannie Miller, 12, vanished Wednesday evening after a car pulled up to the roadside stand in Oswegatchie, a farming community near the Canadian border. They turned up unharmed Thursday evening at a house in Richville, about 15 miles away.

Rain declined to discuss a motive for the abduction. She said information provided by the girls helped lead to Howells and Vaisey.

"The suspects agreed to go to the sheriff's office to be interviewed earlier today, and they were arrested after those interviews," Rain said.

She also said the episode had left a sense of vulnerability in a community where residents said even small children often walk unaccompanied to school.

"One thing that comes from this is that people learn this can happen in a small town," Rain said. "I think the public will take precautions, and that's the sad thing."

Patricia Ritchie, the state senator representing the region, said many people are now reluctant to let their children play outdoors unattended.

Ritchie said the Amish are responding in a way that may forever change a familiar feature of the local landscape: Some are taking down their roadside stands.

"This has sent a shockwave through their community," she said.

Word of the girls' return came shortly after about 200 people attended a candlelight prayer vigil at Cornerstone Wesleyan Church in nearby Heuvelton.

Dot Simmons, a member of the congregation and neighbor of the Miller family, said despair turned to joy when she returned home from the vigil to word that the girls were safe.

Authorities initially said the sisters vanished about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday after a light-colored car pulled up to the farm stand and they went to tend to the customers while the rest of their family stayed at a barn for the evening milking.

By Thursday night, however, they were looking for a red car.

Searchers had scoured Oswegatchie, a farming community of about 4,000 people about 150 miles north of Albany, in a hunt hampered by a lack of photos of the girls for authorities to circulate. The Amish typically avoid modern technology, and the family had to work with an artist who spoke their language, a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch, to produce a sketch of the older girl.

The girls are among the youngest of Mose and Barb Miller's 13 children, who range in age from 1 to 21 years, said Simmons. The girls routinely took on the chore of selling the fruits, vegetables, jams and other products of the farm, Simmons said.

A Section on 08/16/2014

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