Official: Amish sisters abused

For now, pair face abduction charges

CANTON, N.Y. -- A prosecutor said two young Amish sisters were sexually abused after they were abducted from a roadside farm stand in northern New York.

St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain disclosed the purported abuse Saturday -- a day after a couple was charged with first-degree kidnapping in the case.

Stephen Howells Jr. and Nicole Vaisey, both of Hermon, were arrested Friday on charges saying they snatched the 7-year-old and 12-year-old from a roadside farm stand in front of their home near the Canadian border.

St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said at a news conference Saturday that more charges may be filed and that investigators are looking into whether the pair had plotted or carried out other abductions.

"We felt that there was the definite potential that there was going to be other victims," Wells said.

The sisters were abducted Wednesday from their family's farm stand in Oswegatchie and were set free by their captors Thursday.

Howells and Vaisey were arraigned late Friday on charges of first-degree kidnapping with the intent to physically harm or sexually abuse the victims.

The sheriff said Howells, 39, and Vaisey, 25, "were targeting opportunities" and did not necessarily grab the girls because they were Amish.

"There was a lot of thought process that went into this," Wells said. "They were looking for opportunities to victimize."

The suspects are being held without bail and have a preliminary court appearance scheduled for Thursday.

Bradford Riendeau, a lawyer for Vaisey, said, "We're going to be reviewing the available evidence." He expected to speak with her in jail late Saturday, he said.

There was no answer Saturday at the offices of the St. Lawrence County Conflict Defender's Office, which is representing Howells.

Wells said the girls were able to provide details to investigators about their time in captivity and that information provided by the girls was "instrumental in being able to make the arrest."

He said the arrests most likely saved other children from abuse.

Rain said that during the sisters' captivity, they were confined in the main part of Howells' home in Hermon, N.Y. As part of the investigation, computer forensics specialists planned to review electronic data and equipment that were removed from the house Friday night, Rain said.

Laura Shea, a spokesman for Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, where Howells worked, said colleagues were shocked at his arrest, adding that he had worked recently in the hospital's wound-care center.

Darcy Taylor, a friend of Howells' from another care program at the hospital, said "his patients always seemed to like him," adding that "there was nothing to stand out about him."

Howells had three children from a previous marriage, Rain said, and had regular visitation.

Neighbors said Howells and Vaisey, who lived together, kept to themselves and often played with their three horses and tended to their chickens.

The kidnappings Wednesday touched off a wide search in the family's remote farming community.

The girls were released by the suspects late Thursday in an isolated area and walked to a nearby house in Richville, N.Y., Wells said. The girls knocked on the door of Jeff Stinson and his wife, Pam, who recognized them from news reports about the abduction. The Stinsons' took the girls in and gave them food, then Jeff Stinson drove them 20 miles back to their family's farm in Oswegatchie.

Searchers had scoured the farming community of about 4,000 people, 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.

Information for this article was contributed by Benjamin Mueller and Kristin Hussey of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/17/2014

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