Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
•
Near closing time Oct. 13 in a pub in Ruinerwold, Netherlands, a "completely confused" and "unkempt" 25-year-old man appeared with a strange story to tell.
Pub owner Chris Westerbeek told Dutch media the young man ordered five beers and "said he was the oldest (of six siblings) and wanted to end the way they were living," according to The New York Times.
The man had walked to the pub from a farm outside town, where police found five adult siblings, the youngest of whom was 18, had been living in a secret basement, accessed by a hidden door behind a cupboard, for nine years.
They were apparently "waiting for the end of time," police said, and the younger siblings were unaware there were other humans outside the basement. The family, including the father, who also lived on the farm, survived on a large garden and a few animals.
NL Times reported police arrested a 58-year-old Austrian man, believed to a tenant of the farm and identified only as Josef B., initially for refusing to cooperate with the investigation and later charged him with holding the family against their will; it was unclear where the mother is.
At press time, the story was still unfolding. [New York Times, 10/16/2019; NL Times, 10/16/2019]
• Tommy Lee Jenkins, 32, recently moved away from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Whitestown, Indiana, but on Oct. 1, he struck up an online relationship with "Kylee," a supposed 14-year-old girl in Neenah, Wisconsin, according to the Justice Department.
As their correspondence progressed, he requested sexually explicit photos of Kylee and made plans to engage in sexual behavior, court documents said, but when Kylee refused to come to Indiana, Jenkins set out toward Neenah -- on foot.
The Oshkosh Northwestern reported that waiting for him at the end of his 371-mile trek were Winnebago County Sheriff's deputies (one of whom was "Kylee") and FBI agents, who arrested him for using a computer to attempt to persuade, induce or entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
Jenkins faced other child sexual assault charges in 2011 and 2012 and had been sentenced to probation. [Oshkosh Northwestern, 10/11/2019]