Written by Janet

When two leaders of an obscure Ozark woods church were accused of ceremonially abusing girls, preparing them for “service to God” by molesting them, it got a lot of attention.  The allegations involved extended families in southwest Missouri, a largely rural area that has one of the state’s highest rates of reported child abuse and has had other high-profile abuse cases.

But after nearly 3 years, the cases have unraveled – Only one of the six defendants remains charged, and he is free on bail while waiting for a yet-to-be-scheduled trial.  

All six defendants, related by blood or marriage, pleaded not guilty. Hearing after hearing was held. Many of the approximately 100 members of the churches moved away.  

The charges surfaced 2006 when a handful of young women from Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church and Grandview Valley Baptist Church North told authorities they had been sexually abused, some since the 1970s.

Raymond Lambert, pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in McDonald County, was charged with molesting two girls with the help of his wife, Patty Lambert, over 10 years. The girls were allegedly told their bodies were being prepared “for service to God.”

Also accused of abuse were Tom Epling, 54, and his brother, Paul Epling, 56. Tom Epling’s wife, Laura Epling, was accused of helping Lambert abuse a girl.

George Otis Johnston, Lambert’s uncle and pastor of nearby Grandview Valley Baptist Church North in Newton County, was accused of telling an alleged victim he “was ordained by God to fulfill her needs as a woman” and that “if she would have sexual intercourse with him that she would remain a virgin and remain pure.”

However, the statute of limitations led to dismissal of charges against the Epling brothers since their alleged crimes had taken place in the 1970s and 1980s.

In late 2007, McDonald County prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against Patty Lambert, 51, and Laura Epling, 52.

And in June 2008, McDonald County Prosecutor Janice Durbin dropped all charges against Raymond Lambert, just weeks before he was to stand trial for child molestation, statutory sodomy and sexual abuse.

They were dropped because the alleged victims decided “they can no longer subject themselves or their families to the ongoing scrutiny and pressures of a very public proceeding.”  Charges are still pending against Johnston, 66, who has pleaded innocent to 17 felonies. His lawyer, Andrew Wood.

A lack of national experts on child abuse with rural backgrounds could also be an issue in how well rural cases are processed.  The southwest Missouri region, which ranked No. 1 in hot line calls for children in 2006, has seen other attention-grabbing abuse cases. Among them were 2-year-old Dominic James, who was shaken to death by a foster parent in 2002, and 9-year-old Rowan Ford, who was found raped and killed in 2007 — her stepfather and a friend of his are charged in the case.

The region also ranked first in the number of children in state custody in 2006 and in the number of substantiated child abuse/neglect cases and family assessments, according to the Department of Social Services.