ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A woman beat and tortured at least some of her 15 children and forced them to watch as she brutally killed their pets, authorities said in New Mexico, the latest place where the woman and her husband have been the subject of complaints.

Martha Crouch and her husband Timothy of Aztec, New Mexico, were arrested Monday following interviews with a number of their adult and young children living in different states, according to court records. It was not immediately clear if all the allegations made by the children had been verified by authorities.

State officials say documents also point to prior complaints involving the couple in Missouri, Alaska, Kansas and Montana.

Martha Crouch, 53, was charged with child abuse and extreme cruelty to animals. Timothy Crouch, 57, is facing an obstruction charge. The couple has yet to be assigned public defenders. They are due in court Wednesday.

The San Juan County sheriff’s office began an investigation following the arrest of one the couple’s adult children on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Detectives say they uncovered false allegations that two sons beat another brother to death and kidnapped a sister, but heard other claims of abuse, torture and extreme animal cruelty.

One teen daughter told authorities of physical and emotional abuse that had gotten so bad that two of her older siblings took her from New Mexico to Arizona to keep her safe, according to court documents. The teen said after one of their dogs had puppies, the mother “took the puppies and put them into a giant pot and boiled them, making all the kids watch,” the documents said.

The girl told investigators the mother also fed a kitten poison.

She said she was hit by her mother with a plastic cooking spatula for questioning why she wasn’t allowed to go to school. Another, whose age also wasn’t disclosed, said she got pregnant at 14 and her mother beat her until she had a miscarriage.

Another daughter told authorities she was kept in a “fat chain” for three years while the family lived in Alaska because her mother thought she was overweight.

A son told detectives he was “beaten, shot, stabbed and run over by his parents” and “had BBs still inside his arm from when the mother shot him with a shotgun.”

He said New Mexico child welfare investigators recently came to the house to look into allegations of educational neglect but the mother loaded up the three younger children in a car and took them to the Navajo Dam to avoid them being spotted.

The children told detectives the family had lived in a number of places over the years and every time authorities questioned the parents’ activities, they fled to a new place, according to court documents.

Deanna Taylor, an investigator with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, said she received hundreds of pages of reports from other social service agencies in several other states, including Alaska, Kansas, Missouri and Montana. It is not clear what types of allegations were made against the couple in those states and whether any action was taken against them.

Court records show Timothy Crouch pleaded no contest to a theft charge in 1999 in Alaska. A forgery charge in Alaska also was dismissed that year.

Court records show the family had at least one other recent encounter with authorities. San Juan County officials cited Timothy Crouch in May with illegally burning trash.

Court records also show that county authorities’ initial investigation into an assault by an adult son at the family’s home on May 30 came after several brothers said they had been arguing over food.

The son, a 31-year-old also named Timothy Crouch, was accused of pointing a gun at three of his brothers saying he would shoot them. One of the three said the fight started because he was allergic to beef and could not eat hot dogs, an affidavit for an arrest warrant said.

A sister told a deputy there were guns located “throughout the house.”

Authorities also reported finding the body of a dog buried in the backyard that was shot as a punishment to the children.

 

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges after a chase and crash.

Just after 4:30a.m. Sunday police attempted a traffic stop on a 2016 Nissan Maxima driven by a suspect later identified as 31-year-old John Warmer at Kellogg and Oliver in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Warner sped away from the officers and a short vehicle pursuit ensued. Warner fled the vehicle on foot near the intersection of Warner and Lewis. Officers observed he was armed with a handgun, according to Davidson. Officers quickly chased him down, made an arrest and recovered the gun.

A backseat male passenger also fled from the car and has not been located.

After Warner fled the vehicle, he left it in reverse and it struck a Wichita police patrol vehicle causing minor damage. The officers were not injured.

Warner is being held on requested charges of Felon in possession of a firearm, obstruct arrest, possession of marijuana, hit and run, traffic charges and an arrest and detain order through the Kansas Department of Corrections.  He has previous convictions for robbery and drugs and had been on parole since the fall of 2018.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities have apprehended a fired worker who is accused of threatening a shooting in Kansas City’s massive subterranean network of businesses housed in old limestone mines.

UPDATE: Suspect has been taken in custody at another location. The lockdown at the Subtropolis is lifted.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) June 25, 2019

Police said Tuesday in a tweet that they found the worker in Kansas City, Kansas, and lifted the lockdown at Hunt Midwest SubTropolis in Kansas City, Missouri. No other details were immediately released about the capture, including the worker’s name.

Police said earlier that security spotted the worker entering the cave system after he said he would “shoot the place up.” Numerous federal, state and local agencies helped search while workers were told to stay inside their locked offices.

Many of the businesses in the cave system specialize in storage or warehousing because they are protected from extreme weather and boast stable, year-round temperatures and humidity.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man has been ordered to spend nearly 49 years in prison in the fatal beating of his girlfriend’s toddler who died several months after state welfare officials received reports that he was being abused.

26-year-old Lucas Diel of Wichita was sentenced Tuesday for second-degree murder in the May 2018 death of 2-year-old Anthony Bunn. He died two days after he was found unresponsive in his Wichita home.

Anthony’s grandfather, Zak Woolheater, described Diel as a “monster” and recalled the horror of sitting next to the dying toddler’s hospital bed.

Woolheater’s attorney said in a court document filed last year that the state was aware of a previous abuse report involving Anthony and didn’t follow procedures.

The boy’s mother, Elizabeth Woolheater, also has been charged with murder.

RENO COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 2p.m. Monday in Reno County.
The sheriff’s office reported a vehicle driven by Annabelle Gaston, 16, Plevna, was eastbound on Arlington Road. As the vehicle approached the S curve leading into Arlington, it left the road, traveled into the north ditch and rolled in a field.

Matthew Stansbury, 26, Sylvia, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gaston and two other passengers identified as Katherine Blake, 21, and Lakrista Ligget, 18, both of Sylvia were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.

All four were ejected and none were wearing seat belts, according to the Reno County Sheriff’s Department. The accident is still under investigation. Speed is believed to have been a factor, according to the sheriff’s department.

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RENO COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 2p.m. Monday in Reno County.

The sheriff’s office reported a vehicle was eastbound on Arlington Road. As it approached the S curve leading into Arlington, it left the road, traveled into the north ditch and rolled in a field.

Three female and one male were in the vehicle. One was trapped under the vehicle. The male passenger was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. The others were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center. The sheriff’s department has not released names of the victims.

RENO COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 2p.m. Monday in Reno County.

The sheriff’s office reported a vehicle was eastbound on Arlington Road. As it approached the S curve leading into Arlington, it left the road, traveled into the north ditch and rolled in a field.

Three female and one male were in the vehicle. One was trapped under the vehicle. The male passenger was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. The others were transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center. The sheriff’s department has not released names of the victims.

BARTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on drug charges after a drug investigation in Barton County.

Just after 1 p.m. Monday, police executed a pair of narcotics-related search warrants. The first in the 300 block of East 4th Street in Hoisington where narcotics where found, according to police.

Later in the day, police searched a residence in the 300 block of East 3rd Street in Hoisington where drugs were also found.

As a result of the investigation, police arrested 38-year-old Jennifer Welcher and 30-year-old Matthew Harris who were booked on requested charges that include Distribution of a Controlled Substance within 1000 feet of a school. Bonds were each set at $50,000.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — The pilot of a small plane avoided injury after an accident just after 10 a.m. Tuesday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1966 Mooney M20C piloted by Blair Gordon Gill, 56, Wichita, was doing touch-and-go landings at Jabara Airport, 3512 North Webb Road in Wichita.

The pilot forgot to retract his landing gear after completing his first touch-and-go. On his second landing, the pilot thought he was extending the landing gear but was in fact retracting it.

This resulted in a gear-up landing on Runway 18, according to the KHP. Gill was not injured.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man was convicted Tuesday in a shooting that killed three people in a popular downtown area of the Kansas college town.

Anthony Roberts Jr., 22, of Topeka, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree felony murder, one count of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

Deputy District Attorney David Melton said Roberts opened fire in October 2017 after he and his friends confronted a group of other Topeka men with whom they had “bad blood” as crowds were leaving bars, concerts and other events on the main downtown Lawrence street.

But Roberts’ attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense and was legally openly carrying a gun with an extended magazine before the shooting.

“Anthony and his friends are being pummeled, and Anthony’s about to be next,” said Joshua Seiden, one of two defense attorneys representing Roberts. “Anthony saw guns being drawn, he had no time to think, and he reacted. Anthony drew his gun, a 9-millimeter Glock. To protect his friends and to protect himself, Anthony fired that Glock.”

The gunfire killed 22-year-old Leah Brown, of Shawnee; 20-year-old Colwin Lynn Henderson, of Topeka; and 24-year-old Tre’Mel Dupree Dean-Rayton, of Topeka. Two others were wounded but survived. Brown was the only victim who knew no one else involved.

But Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson urged jurors not to excuse Roberts’ action as self-defense. He said forensic testing showed all 15 9mm shell casings left behind in the area were fired by Roberts’ Glock 26.

“There was no self-defense in this case,” he said. “There simply was murder.”

A second defendant was convicted previously of attempted voluntary manslaughter, and a third of misdemeanor battery.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 1. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

SALINE COUNTY – On June 25, 2016, 57-year-old Lori Heimer was found deceased in her home in rural Saline County. Investigators from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office have followed hundreds of leads in an effort to hold Heimer’s attacker accountable. On the anniversary of her murder, the investigation is active and ongoing, but the case remains unsolved.

At the time of her death, Heimer operated Lori’s Poodle Patch, a dog breeding business, from her home in Assaria. Authorities continue to seek information from anyone who had contact with Heimer through this dog business, in the month of June 2016.

Anyone with information about the death of Lori Heimer is urged to contact 1-800-KS-CRIME. Callers may remain anonymous.

— KBI