Couple present daughter as gift
Police find ‘crazy’ situation after call to welfare hotline.
A 51-year-old Philadelphia man was arrested after he was found living with 12 girls, including a teenager he considered his wife, and a baby and a toddler he fathered with her, authorities said.
Some of the children were hiding in the small house.
‘‘We kept finding more children,’’ Lieutenant John Krimmel of Bucks County police said. ‘‘It’s just a crazy situation.’’
The oldest girl, now 18, told police she was the mother of two of the girls, a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old, Krimmel said.
The teen’s parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, of Quarryville, Lancaster County, were also arrested after they told police they had ‘‘gifted’’ their daughter to Lee Kaplan four years ago.
The girl was 14 at the time, and Daniel Stoltzfus gave her to Kaplan as thanks ‘‘for helping his family out of financial ruin’’, according to the criminal complaints.
Bucks County District Attorney David Hecklerinvestigations were continuing into how the children came to be living with Kaplan, and whether any of them may have been abused.
He described the Stoltzfuses as ‘‘straightforward’’. They told police they were going to lose their farm until Kaplan ‘‘comes along and gives them money somehow,’’ possibly employing Daniel Stoltzfus in a scrap business.
Once their farm was saved, Daniel Stoltzfus, now 43, did some internet research and concluded that it was legal to give their daughter to Kaplan, Heckler said.
Savilla Stoltzfus, 42, was at Kaplan’s house when the childwelfare check was made, Heckler said.
The Stoltzfuses ‘‘think he’s a wonderful man’’.
Kaplan had ‘‘brainwashed’’ the girls, who said good things about him, Heckler said.
Kaplan and the 18-year-old were not married, but Heckler said they acted as husband and wife.
The girls apparently did not attend school and it was unclear if they had ever been to a doctor, Heckler said. They did not appear to be in bad health and did not show visible signs of trauma.
Because of an apparent Amish influence on the children, police asked child-welfare workers from Lancaster County who are familiar with Amish culture to interview the children, Krimmel said.
Police were unable to find birth certificates for any of the children and said they did not have Social Security numbers, he said.
Heckler said all of the children are in protective custody and are together.
Kaplan and the Stoltzfuses are each being held on US$1 million bail.
Kaplan was charged with two counts of statutory sexual assault and related offences. Daniel Stoltzfus was charged with criminal conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children. Savilla Stoltzfus was charged with endangering the welfare of children.
The Stoltzfuses were born into the Amish religion, but renounced it amid a years-long fight with community elders, according to a federal lawsuit they filed in 2009 against their former church. In the complaint, the Stoltzfuses said they had 11 children and had owned their family property since 1997. They operated a metal working business on the property. They suggested that sect leaders, among other things, frowned on them for doing business ‘‘with an individual of the Jewish faith named Lee Kaplan,’’ the complaint says.
The lawsuit was dismissed later that year.
Kaplan’s empty house, with a bright-blue door and at least one window boarded up, was guarded by police.
Jen Betz, a 37-year-old mother of two young children, said she was the neighbour who called a childwelfare hotline about Kaplan.
She was concerned about the girls – some 7 or 8, some in their young teens – that she saw at his house, which she noticed had boarded windows and high weeds.
They all wore blue dresses and had long, unkempt hair.
Then Betz learned that there was an infant in the house. Being a new mother to a little girl helped make the decision for her.
‘‘Something needed to be done,’’ she said.