(Arkansas, which is where we were when we were rescued at last)
Couple Arrested
Idaho children found in county
Thursday, November 2, 1978
By Carol Hickingbotham
of the Sentinel-Record
A nationwide search for two children ended Wednesday when Garland County Sheriff’s Department officials took custody of the minors and arrested the man and woman with whom they were living at Hot Springs.
A charge of rape alleged by a 14-year-old adopted daughter of the couple was filed against Michael Rogers, 37, of Rt. 9, Box 819, on a fugitive warrant from the State of Idaho. He was arrested at 11 am Wednesday at Mountain Pine.
His wife, Dorothy Rogers, of the same address was arrested at the home at 1 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of theft by receiving of a Chevrolet station wagon.
Both of the subjects are being held in the Garland County Jail pending further charges and extradition to the state of Idaho. The man is being held on $10,000 bond and the woman on $1,500.
According to Sheriff Leon Barlow, the couple may also face charges of abduction under Idaho state law. The two children taken into custody were being sought by their maternal grandparents, Lucille and Leon Baxter of Stockton, Kansas after the disappearance of their mother last February. Two other adopted children were taken into [custody] along with the Baxter grandchildren, of the Arkansas State Department Social Services.
According to De Burr, the private investigator who has led the search for the two children and the couple, one of the [two] adopted children was being sought on a pick-up order by the Idaho department of Social Welfare.
Burr related the details of an ‘exhaustive cross-country search’ for the couple and the four children, which has taken his firm [six months]. The couple disappeared from Boise in May.
Burr said that the couple was to appear at a custody Hearing on May [27]. The Baxters had filed suit to get legal guardianship of their seven and nine year old grandchildren.
Burr also alleged that a Gem County sheriff was waiting at the Hearing with a warrant for the arrest of Michael Rogers on the rape charges. The family failed to appear.
The detective explained Marie Watson, mother of the missing children, had let them live with the couple. Burr noted that there was a distant family relationship.
The charges for rape stem from, according to burr, the allegations of the teenage adopted daughter of the couple who ran away earlier this year. After
(See MISSING on page 31)
MISSING
(From page One)
becoming a ward of the Idaho welfare department, the girl told her story of a rape which she alleged was witnessed by the two other girls residing with the family, said Burr. He added that her charges were filed with the Idaho prosecuting attorney.
Burr explained that, according to Idaho law the presence of the two minor girls during the rape of the teenager constituted rape of the two younger girls.
He continued that the case had been entered into the federal Crime Information Center and the couple had been sought by the FBI across the country.
Numerous instances of child abuse had been alleged against the couple, said Burr. He [declared] that his firm had a list of some “26 individuals” who would attest to conditions in the home.
Originally hired to locate Marie [Jackson], Burr maintained that he believed there had been foul play in her disappearance. The Baxter’s daughter was last reported seen with Dorothy Rogers.
He anticipated continuing his investigation into the whereabouts of the missing [36]-year-old woman but gave little hope of success. “We’ve looked all over the Northwest, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Idaho [sic-is repeated and repeated in the article] down to the Nevada border and into Montana… [14,000] miles and we found nothing.
He reported that he found the couple and the children through “a reliable informant.”
The Baxters, the grandparents of the missing children, arrived in Hot Springs Wednesday night, said Burr. Burr added that the couple will go to “court Thursday to get physical custody” of their lost grandchildren.
Burr commented that he had never worked with a finer Sheriff’s Department. He remarked that Sheriff Barlow was extremely professional and that the county was fortunate to have him.” The private investigator said that the sheriff’s deputies were the most “cooperative, [quickest] and most knowledgeable he had worked with during the investigation.”
