BATES CITY, MO- The abundant sunshine outside was nowhere evident inside a conference room at Gene Darnell Justice Center in Lexington Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 11, as Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh read the names of five men, a father and four sons, who were arrested and charged Tuesday, Nov. 10, with multiple counts of sex crimes perpetrated against children.
Among the sons is Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City, a paramedic, who until yesterday was an active member of the staff of Saline County Ambulance District #3 in Marshall. He is being held on a $30,000 cash-only bond, and is expected to make an appearance in court tomorrow
Flanked by Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney Kellie Wingate Ritchie, Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Kanatzar and members of the Rural Missouri Major Case Squad, Alumbaugh said the investigation began in August, when one of the victims came forward with information. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between 1988 and 1995, when all the victims, now in their 20s and 30s, were juveniles.
Roland Mohler, who was hired at SCAD #3 in 2006, was charged with class C felony use of a child in a sexual performance. According to information in the probable cause statement, the victim, alleged to be one of Burrell E. Mohler Jr.’s children, said Roland Mohler, his father, the victim’s father and one of the remaining two brothers, were all present when she was forced to engage in bestiality.
The victims have also told authorities they were forced to engage in mock wedding ceremonies, after which they were molested and one said she was forced to have an abortion after she became pregnant at age 11.
Alumbaugh said a search is currently underway at a Bates City address, where law enforcement officers are looking for glass jars with letters or notes inside them, detailing the abuse, that the victims say they buried on the property. Authorities are also looking for “a body or possibly bodies,” he said, based on accounts of killings from the victims.
Although there were no allegations that there are victims in Saline County, Alumbaugh said there “probably are” other victims.
“I believe there are other victims, and so does every investigator on the case,” he said. “And we take this personally. We think about our own children and every child we know,” in situations like this one.
Alumbaugh urged anyone who thinks they may have been victimized by these five men, or knows anyone who went missing in the time period between 1988 and 1995 to come forward with information.
