The 5 JOHNSON Children - approximate ages 2-13 yo - York PA

Police: Couple who hid 5 children a complex case

Updated: 11/09/2010 12:56:02 AM EST
York, PA - A couple is accused of hiding their five children -- ranging in age of about 2 to 13 -- for years in a York home that had no electric, heat, water or functioning toilet.

The children were not enrolled in school or home schooled, police said. They were never taken to a doctor or dentist for checkups. They never received their immunizations.

They have no birth certificates on file, so their ages and places of birth cannot be determined.

After a lengthy investigation, police charged Sinhue Amea Johnson, 45, and Louann Emma Bowers, 33, in September with five counts each of endangering the welfare of children.

"This has been the worst I've ever seen under the environmental and neglect category," New York City detective Dana Ward said Monday.

Sinhue Johnson

Tips, but no proof
Children and Youth Services received anonymous tips in 2003 and 2007 that Johnson and a woman he lived with had numerous children living in a home in the 700 block of South Duke Street.

In both cases, the agency could not determine if the children existed because Johnson was uncooperative, according to court documents.

Then last year, Children and Youth Services received another anonymous tip -- this time from a family member -- who reported seeing some or all of the children. The agency again contacted Johnson, who refused to cooperate.Children and Youth Services obtained a court order and went to the house, but Johnson had fled the home, leaving it vacant. The fire department condemned the house before Children and Youth could determine whether the children existed, according to court documents.The agency referred the case to the York City Police Child Abuse Unit.

Lengthy investigation
At some point -- court documents do not give a time frame -- police learned Johnson was staying at a motel "in the East York area," court documents state. Bowers was found in the motel room with the five children, hiding in the bathroom, police said. She identified the children as belonging to her and Johnson.But she refused to answer questions about the children's place of birth, education, medical treatment or Johnson's location, police said. The children were taken into protective custody and placed in foster care.Police obtained a search warrant for the house on Duke Street. It was searched, and numerous photos were taken. They determined Johnson and Bowers had lived there with the five children for years. The home had no utilities and no functioning toilet. And the roof leaked.Tracking down the information from the utility companies and other sources took a lot of time, resulting in the lengthy investigation, Ward said.

The family claimed religious beliefs for their lifestyle, but Ward said he was never able to find anything out about the name of the religion they cited.

"There's a lot we don't know," Ward said.

Formal interviews of the children were attempted, but the children said they were not permitted to talk about their home and family, and little information was obtained from them.It has since been determined that some of the children suffer health and vision issues. The children are not at their expected education levels, and possible mental health issues are being investigated.The children remain in foster care and are doing well, Ward said Tuesday. Their health is improving, and they're catching up on their education.

Missing person case
Bowers had been reported missing until she showed up during this case, Ward said. Neither Ward nor others contacted Monday could confirm that she is the same Louann Emma Bowers who disappeared from the East Berlin area in 1993 at the age of 16.

The date of birth for Bowers on current court papers matches the one on a report on the missing teen. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the Bowers case was closed last year after she was found in York, said Robert Lowery, executive director of the missing child division. A relative of the man she was staying with recognized her from age-progression photographs.Lowery could not confirm that the Louann Bowers charged in this case was the same person as the missing teen.

Neighbors didn't see much
Neighbors said they would go days without seeing Johnson, but he was friendly. He frequently collected scrap metal from neighborhood trash and loaded it into an old truck, they said. Neighbor John Stimers said he never really paid attention to the house. In the five months he's lived on the block, the doors and windows have been boarded, he said.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," said Stimers, who has two children. "I can't even imagine leaving kids in a house with no running water or heat or way to cook."

Neighbors reported no signs of life in the house: no lights or movement behind the blind-covered windows. When it was condemned last year, they stopped seeing Johnson, they said.

Couple accused of hiding 5 children have other criminal charges

York, PA - A couple accused of hiding their five children also are facing other, unrelated charges, including a firearms charge.

Sinhue Johnson is facing a parole violation and prosecution in a theft case.

Updated: 11/09/2010 12:56:25 AM ESTSpringettsbury Township Police said stopped Sinhue Johnson and Louann Bowers on July 14 and found a loaded semi-automatic pistol in their pickup.

According to reports, when Officer John C. Shapley III saw the truck drive past him on Industrial Highway at North Hills Road, the passenger appeared to have a mask on.

Shapley reported he followed the pickup to a convenience store at Industrial Highway and Memory Lane.

"Both the driver and the passenger appeared to be watching nervously as I drove by," Shapley stated in the criminal complaint.

The truck left the store and wound its way north, east and back west to a hotel parking lot in the 3000 block of East Market Street, where Shapley stopped it for a broken tail light.

The officer determined Johnson was wanted on warrants and handcuffed him. Another officer noticed the handle of the pistol under a sweater between the truck occupants.

Shapley said Johnson told him he was trying to sell the gun. Neither Johnson nor Bowers is licensed to carry a firearm, police said.Both were charged with carrying a firearm without a license,Johnson has two other outstanding charges.

In 2004, he was charged with theft of services and criminal mischief for illegally hooking into electrical service after that service had been disconnected for nonpayment at 734 S. Duke St. at the time.

He pleaded no contest in 2006 and was sentenced to 24 months' probation and ordered to pay Met-Ed $2,272 in restitution. He has a parole violation pending in that case.

In March, Johnson was charged with theft for allegedly failing to return 43 pieces of scaffolding, valued at $1,652, to a Springettsbury Township rental company.

Mom of hidden kids was also a missing person

11/09/2010 01:35:09 PM EST



Bowers Johnson Five children were allegedly hidden for years at 734 S. Duke St. in York City.

A woman accused, along with her boyfriend, of isolating their five children from the world and raising them in squalor in part of a dilapidated York City building was a missing person for years, police said.

Louann E. Bowers was 16 years old and living with her family in York County when she ran away from home, state police Trooper Bradley Dunham said. She was reported missing June 8, 1993. Police believe she ran away with her uncle by marriage, Sinhue A. Johnson, Dunham said. Johnson - her co-defendant - was 28 at the time.

"I think she was very susceptible to the influences of anybody who was a strong figure, who could 'save' her," said defense attorney Ron Gross, who represents Bowers. "That would have been the only semblance
of control she had in her life."

She was listed as a missing runaway with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which several times had age-progression renderings done of what Bowers might look like as an adult, Dunham said.

"Those were posted all over the place," he said."There were various leads that were followed up on throughout the years," Dunham said, including one in 2006 that Bowers was a state prison inmate in Lawrence County using another name.

Although that inmate looked like Bowers, it wasn't her, the trooper said. "It was always our belief that she was in York somewhere, and was most likely with Sinhue Johnson," Dunham said.

The case remained active for 16 years, with no sightings of Bowers.

Flagged down: That changed on June 6, 2009, when a tipster flagged down a York City police officer to report that a missing person was at the Turkey Hill Minit Market at the corner of West Market and West streets, Dunham said. It was Bowers. A trooper responded and interviewed her, after which she drifted back into anonymity - for a short time.

"She indicated she was not in danger or distress, and said she just wanted to be left alone," said Dunham, who took over the case in 2003. But less than three months later, on Aug. 28, 2009, York City Police Detective First Class Dana Ward and a York County Children and Youth Services caseworker tracked down Bowers and her five children in an East York motel room. The child-welfare agency, acting on an anonymous tip, had been searching for the children of Bowers and Johnson since 2003.

In 2009, caseworkers notified city police, who joined the search.

"No one knew they existed," Ward said.

Squalor: The children range in age from 2 to 13 years old. They have no birth certificates, were never enrolled in school, never received medical care or vaccinations and had no documentation to prove they existed, police allege.

For years, they lived in squalor at 734 S. Duke St. with no heat, no electric service, no water, no functioning toilet and a leaky roof, court documents allege.Ward said they lived in one filth-covered room of the house, which is now condemned, and apparently used plastic sheets to gather - and use - rainwater leaking through the ceiling.The children are now in foster care, enrolled in school and receiving medical attention, Ward said.Bowers, 33, and Johnson, 45, remain in York County Prison awaiting trial, each charged with five counts of child endangerment.

Didn't know: Bowers loves her children and never thought she was doing anything to hurt them, according to Gross, her defense attorney.

"She just thought it was their circumstance as a family," he said. "She actually thought she was acting in a way that was best for her family, but she now understands there were many, many shortcomings. ... She understands the consequences of her actions and the basis for these charges."

Gross said he thinks Bowers' own history factors into her "inaction" with respect to her children. He confirmed Bowers has been with Johnson since she was 16 and considers him her husband.

"The issue we have is that when you're ... with somebody, you tend to become what they want you to become, and that's really where she's at," Gross said. "She has a very adolescent, immature view of love and loyalty."

'Long process': But Bowers understands she must put her children first - before Johnson, Gross said.

"Right now she's working on her GED and taking parenting classes in York County Prison," Gross said. "Upon her release she's going to be seeking to work with the (Children and Youth) team assigned to her case, and moving toward being reunited with her children. "It's going to be a long process," he said. Gross said he hopes to resolve Bowers' criminal case without a trial. Johnson maintains he did nothing to hurt his children. His defense attorney, James Rader, declined comment.