Missouri reform school owners charged with abusing residents
Posted Mar 10, 2021 02:04:07 PM.
Last Updated Mar 10, 2021 02:09:15 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LIBERTY, Mo. — The owners of a former reform school for girls in southwest Missouri have been charged with more than 100 counts alleging they abused and neglected residents at the facility for years.
Boyd and Stephanie Householder, who operated the Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County, were charged Tuesday and are being held in the Cedar County Jail.
Boyd Householder faces 80 charges, including several counts of statutory rape, statutory sodomy and abuse and neglect of a child. Stephanie Householder was charged with 22 counts, most involving abuse or neglect of a child. Her charges do not involve sexual contact.
State investigators removed about two dozen girls from the home outside Humansville in August. The Householders closed the school shortly after the girls were removed.
The charges came after an investigation by Cedar County and other area law enforcement officers that started when former residents of the home made allegations against the Householders on social media. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office to help with the investigation in mid-November.
The Householders told The Kansas City Star in September that the girls’ allegations were lies, prompted by their estranged daughter and girls who lived at the ranch who have not been successful in life.
The Associated Press
