Police find missing McKean Amish girl; father charged
CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS — An Amish girl missing for four days was found safe Sunday and her father, who served time for killing the girl's mother in a schizophrenic frenzy, was arraigned on charges he concealed his daughter's whereabouts, police said.
After four days of searching, police found 17-year-old Mary Gingerich in McKean County, about two hours away from the Amish community in Crawford County where she lives, police said.
Edward Gingerich, the girl's father, was released from state prison in 1998 after serving five years for killing and disemboweling his wife. In 1993, he said he killed his 29-year-old wife, Katie, with a kitchen knife, to exorcise the devil and because she was planning to attend a wedding without him.
The father was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Amy Nicols of Titusville on Sunday night. He was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit concealment of the whereabouts of a child; concealment of the whereabouts of a child and interfering with the custody of children.
A preliminary hearing has been tentatively scheduled for May 1. Gingerich was being held in the county jail at Saegertown in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Mary Gingerich is to be returned to her paternal grandparents, Dan and Mary Gingerich, who were awarded custody of the teenager on Thursday.
The teenager has been living with her grandparents since her mother was killed. They expressed fears she could be in danger after she went missing, Barbara Mountjoy, the grandparents' attorney, said.
A petition filed by the grandparents and quoting the girl's aunt alleges that the teenager was locked in a barn by her two brothers and later taken away by her father in a car.
Edward Gingerich's brothers, Joseph, 43, and Atlee, 44, have been charged with criminal conspiracy and are being held in Crawford County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bond, Mountjoy said. Police accuse them of concealing the girl's whereabouts.
The custody order granted Thursday by Judge John Spataro means police must turn over the girl to her grandparents once she is found, Mountjoy said. The Meadville Tribune said it was unclear whether her father knew of the judge's order.
In 1993, Gingerich was convicted in the killing of his wife, but found to be mentally ill. After leaving prison, Gingerich moved to central Michigan, where he lived in a Mennonite halfway house.
On Friday, Jim Fisher, a retired Edinboro University criminal justice professor and former FBI agent who wrote the book "Crimson Stain" about the case, said Gingerich was recently asked to leave the Michigan community in which he had been living.
A phone number for a Joseph Gingerich in Cochranton rang unanswered Sunday and no listed number for Atlee Gingerich could be found.
