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Kach reunites with deli owner

Jill King Greenwood
By Jill King Greenwood
3 Min Read March 28, 2006 | 20 years Ago
| Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:00 a.m.
One week to the day after Tanya Kach revealed her true identity to a McKeesport deli owner, the two tearfully reunited today at the Evans Street store. Joe Sparico, owner of JJ’s Deli Mart, clung to Kach and said he was thrilled to see her back with her family. “I love her. I consider her my daughter,” said Sparico, who called police after Kach told him she had been held captive in a McKeesport bedroom since her disappearance on Feb. 10, 1996. “She wanted to find her dad again, and I’m so I happy that I could do that for her. She asked me for help and I gave it to her.” Kach, 24, was accompanied today by her father, Jerry Kach, stepmother, Jo-Ann Kach, and stepbrother Kevin McGuire, 18, all of Elizabeth Township. Since emerging from captivity, Kach said she has enjoyed sleeping in her own bedroom, coming and going as she pleases and talking on the phone. “My Dad says, ‘You’re like a teenager again. You’re constantly on the phone. I just can’t wipe the smile off my face,'” said Tanya Kach, who was 14 years old when she vanished. Thomas John Hose, 48, a school security guard charged with child sex offenses in connection with Kach’s disappearance, walked away from the Allegheny County Jail today. “No, he has nothing to say,” defense attorney James Ecker said as reporters fired questions at his client. Hose wore the same leather jacket, black shirt and pants – and frown – that he displayed when he surrendered to police six days earlier. He walked out the front doors of the Uptown jail at 1:40 p.m. after posting $10,000 through a bail bondsman the night before, and after being fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet. “He was very anxious to get out and see his elderly parents,” Ecker said before leading Hose to the lawyer’s black Cadillac. Aside from visits to his lawyer’s office and church, Hose must stay home until his April 6 preliminary hearing on charges of statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O’Toole ordered the house arrest and electronic monitoring Monday when he increased Hose’s bond from $2,000 to $10,000. Prosecutors said they expect to file additional charges against Hose based on the allegations that he carried on a sexual affair with Tanya Kach since the time she was 14. Judith Clara Sokol, 57, a former beautician charged as Hose’s accomplice in the sexual assaults, remained in jail today in lieu of $10,000 bond. Kach said she skipped her eighth grade class one day at Cornell Middle School and that Hose kissed her in the stairwell. The two secretly began dating, she said, and Kach agreed to run away from home and live with him at his parents’ Soles Street home. Additional Information:

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