Thomas John Hose was considered an exemplary employee. Charismatic. Intelligent. Good-natured.
Students and staff at Cornell Middle School in McKeesport thought so highly of the security guard that they celebrated a day in his honor.
"He was one of the top guards, not only for us but for the school district," said Kevin Smith, vice president of marketing for St. Moritz Security Services Inc., a district contractor.
That's why Hose's arrest last week on child sex charges in connection with the 10-year disappearance of former Cornell student Tanya Kach, now 24, stunned St. Moritz and district officials.
He seems a picture of contradictions -- seen both as professional and predatory, a man well-liked by some colleagues and considered a joke by others.
Hose, 48, lives with his parents, Howard and Eleanor, and does not own a car. He has lived at their Soles Street home his entire life, according to divorce records filed by his ex-wife, Deborah Himich.
The couple married April 8, 1983, in Carrick, but she has lived several houses away since 1985, according to court records. The couple's no-fault divorce was not finalized until February 2005.
They have a son, Justin, 22, who lived with Hose at times Kach said she was kept there.
Kach was 14 when she ran away Feb. 10, 1996, to be with Hose, thinking she was in love with him. Once he sneaked her into his parents' small, two-bedroom home, she said the relationship changed.
Kach said he controlled her psychologically and kept her locked away, without his parents' knowledge, for more than nine years.
Hose introduced her to his parents only within the past year, when she regularly was allowed to venture outside, Kach said last week after revealing her secret to a local deli owner, who called the police.
In late 1999, during the time Kach said Hose held her captive, Cornell students and staff hosted "Tom Hose Day," which they celebrated with a school assembly, plaque presentation and speeches.
Defense attorney James Ecker said Wednesday he has received a dozen phone calls from McKeesport residents and Cornell parents.
"It's all been positive. A lot of people think he's a good guy," Ecker said.
Hose and his parents will not comment, Ecker said.
With his long, thinning hair, bushy mustache and all-black outfit he wore to and from jail, Hose looks much like he did in 1993 when he started working at Cornell. He started out making less than $7 an hour for St. Moritz.
The McKeesport Area School District hired him in 2000 for $7 an hour. He was earning between $10 and $12 an hour when he was suspended without pay last week.
On his employment application with the school district, Hose indicated that he was self-employed before 1993 but did not list an occupation. He also volunteered as a cafeteria monitor at Cornell, said district solicitor Jack Cambest.
Neither St. Moritz nor the district ever received complaints about Hose or indications the students disliked him -- or that the girls liked him too much, Smith and Cambest said.
But that doesn't mean there wasn't talk.
While Hose always performed his job professionally, former Cornell cafeteria worker Jeanie Krimm said his appearance and flirtatious behavior drew laughs.
"The kitchen staff thought he was a joke," she said. "I thought he was hilarious. He would wear his pants two sizes too small. You could see every nook and cranny."
And there was the cologne.
"You could always smell him coming a mile away," Krimm said. "He was that kind of gentleman. He always had a wink for you. When you're our age, you blow it off, but it's attractive to a 14-year-old girl."
Police are investigating Hose in connection with the 1998 death of Krimm's daughter, Kimberlie, another 14-year-old Cornell student. Her partially clothed body was found in a cemetery within view of Hose's house. Her death remains unsolved and has not been ruled a homicide.
"Whether or not he had anything to do with Kimberlie's death, I feel that he betrayed me. I sat there and cried on this man's shoulder about my daughter," said Krimm, who worked at Cornell for two years until leaving about four years ago.
She said she regrets not listening to another daughter, Monica Krimm, now 24, who told her mother the day Kach disappeared that she believed Hose had killed her friend and classmate. Monica Krimm told her mother that Kach and Hose were having a relationship, both women said.
"You don't want to believe someone in authority would do something like that," Jeanie Krimm said.
The students believed Kach and Hose were sexually involved, and he escorted her to classes, Monica Krimm said.
"They'd follow each other around constantly," she said.
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