Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

http://www.foxkansas.com/news/local/story/Search-For-Missing-Boy-In-Towanda/fE0H9QMRckCr-IMWeE_vIQ.cspx

Update:  Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy says investigators "found an answer to something they were looking for" today, but would not say anything more about it.


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Investigators from Wichita and Butler County are on the scene of a mobile home park in Towanda. They are looking for a boy who may have gone missing in 1999.

Police say the boy was 11 or 12 at the time, but his disappearance was never reported. Within the past few weeks, the Exploited and Missing Child Unit in Wichita received a tip about the boy.

Detectives got in touch with Butler County authorities to investigate. 

Wednesday is the first day of searching. More than a dozen investigators are on the scene at a mobile home park where the boy's family lived in 1999. 

They are looking in a storage shed, and appear to be trying to dig through the floor. Authorities have not released any names, but say this is just the beginning of their investigation.

Edited once to change subject  title to include the victims name. 

Officials To Discuss Missing Boy Mystery
Butler County Preteen Reportedly Disappeared In 1999

POSTED: 1:19 pm CST January 4, 2009
UPDATED: 1:39 pm CST January 4, 2009


TOWANDA, Kan. -- Authorities in a south-central Kansas county will hold a news conference Monday about the apparent disappearance of a boy nearly a decade ago.

The news conference in Butler County comes after investigators found something Wednesday at the Pine Ridge mobile home park south of Towanda, where the boy once lived.

Officials only said that the discovery provided some answers about the case. Sheriff Craig Murphy said many questions remain.

Murphy said authorities have been unable to find any trace of the boy since 1999, when he was 11 or 12.

Authorities have not released the name of the boy or his adoptive parents, but Wichita broadcasters have spoken to the family. The boy's relatives told KAKE-TV they are speaking to an attorney and plan to release a statement soon.

KAKE-TV reported that the family said that the boy had run away from home and had a history of doing that.

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 5, 2009 Monday 
 
Authorities ask family of missing boy for DNA
 
Jan. 5--Detectives investigating the apparent disappearance of a boy from his Butler County home about nine years ago have asked his biological parents and sister for DNA samples, they said Saturday.

The samples could be compared to any evidence detectives find of him, they said.

Also Saturday, an attorney for Adam Herrman's adoptive parents said he ran away about nine years ago, when he was 11 or 12, that they didn't report it and that they feel "horribly guilty" for not doing so.

"And they've been feeling that guilt for nine years," Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise said.

In interviews with The Eagle on Saturday, Adam's biological parents, who have divorced, said they wish he had not been removed from their custody.

"I feel like he wouldn't be missing if he would have been in my custody," said Irvin Groeninger II, Adam's biological father, who now lives in Indiana. Adam was named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born in Wichita in June 1987.

Adam's older biological sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, now 22 and living in Wichita, said that over the years she called Adam's adoptive mother to ask how he was doing.

At first, the adoptive mother said Adam was OK, but later she told Broadfoot not to call, Broadfoot said.

Broadfoot said investigators planned to collect a DNA sample from her Monday or Tuesday.

The investigators said they also plan to release Adam's picture to the media Monday, Broadfoot said.

"They thought that maybe it would help somebody to recognize him... that somebody would step up and say something," she said.

Investigators have not disclosed any pictures of Adam or his name or his adoptive parents' names.

Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the sheriff's offices in El Dorado.

So far, Murphy has said that the boy has possibly been missing since 1999, when he was 11 or 12 and living at a Towanda mobile home park, that no one ever reported him missing, and that detectives began investigating after a recent tip to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit. Investigators couldn't find any evidence that Adam is alive, Murphy said.

Investigators searched part of the mobile home park last week. The search answered only one of the investigators' questions, Murphy said, without elaborating.

History of running away

Eisenbise, attorney for the adoptive parents, said Adam "ran away so many times, that the last time they thought maybe he'll show up" or maybe he was with his biological family.

Adam had psychological problems and was difficult to control, Eisenbise said.

"They assumed that he was somewhere -- either a homeless person or back with members of his family," Eisenbise said.

"He had never contacted them. They assumed that he was OK."

Court records show that as late as 2003 -- about four years after Adam might have gone missing -- his adoptive parents listed him in their divorce case, later dismissed.

'An easygoing kid'

Broadfoot said that she, Adam and their younger siblings went to a couple's foster home in Derby. The same couple later adopted Adam and his younger siblings.

Broadfoot said she was about 5 when she went to the home, and less than a year later, she went to a foster family in Wichita who adopted her.

Adam and his adoptive family moved to Towanda. Apparently after he disappeared, they moved to Sedgwick and eventually back to Derby.

Broadfoot described Adam as "just an easygoing kid." One of his favorite things at the Derby home was taking bits of apples or carrots and standing on a fence to feed them to horses at a nearby farm.

She remembers him having dark, almost curly hair and "this cute, really round face."

She last saw him at her half-sister's birthday party when she was 7 or 8 and he was 5 or 6.

When she was 8 or 9, she got a Christmas letter from Adam and two younger siblings. She thinks it was Adam who wrote that he hoped he had been good enough to get a Tonka truck from Santa. He was about 6 then.

"When I was little, and even now, it has always been my dream to find my brothers and my sisters," Broadfoot said.

Several years ago, when she was about 16, she tried to contact Adam and her other siblings. By telephone, she talked to Adam's adoptive mother, who said that Adam was fine, Broadfoot said.

About three years ago, Broadfoot said she called the adoptive mother and asked to speak to Adam, but the adoptive mother told her not to contact her anymore because she didn't want the siblings to know they were adopted, Broadfoot said.

Broadfoot tried again, without success, to contact Adam last year, she said.

Then last month, she said, her biological father --Groeninger, a 44-year-old truck driver living in Indiana -- called her and said, "Are you sitting down? Because I need to talk to you."

He said a detective told him that Adam had been missing since 1999.

"I said, 'How could that be?' " Broadfoot said.

The last time Groeninger saw his son was when the boy was about 18 months old -- about 20 years ago. He and Adam's mother divorced, and Adam and his siblings ended up in state custody.

Groeninger said a Butler County sheriff's detective told him that Adam had been reported missing Dec. 5.

"He said he's been missing nine years, and that just blew my mind," Groeninger said.

'Not... a good parent'

Adam's biological mother, Gerri George, is 46 and works as a Wal-Mart cashier in Colorado.

She said her son was born at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita and that he went into state custody at about age 2.

"I had been a little bit not exactly a good parent," she said, adding she had left a bruise on an older child. Still, she said, she did her best to give her children a good home.

She last saw her son when he was about 4.

She last got a picture of him -- mailed by his adoptive mother -- in 1993. He was 6.

On the back was his new name: Adam Joseph Herrman.

She said Broadfoot called her a couple weeks ago to tell her Adam was missing.

"She just said, 'Mom, don't have a heart attack... but one of your kids came up missing, and they said there's no record of him.' "

Then Friday, a Butler County investigator asked her to give a DNA sample "in case they do find a clue or a hint of him, that they can do a comparison to make sure it is him," she said.

She said investigators told her "they do not have a single clue" about what happened to Adam.

Now, she is raising two children, one 7 and one 9.

And she wishes Adam and the other children had remained with her. "I always have," she said.

Every holiday, she starts and ends the day crying over the children whose custody she lost, she said.

"I still cry, because I miss them."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:906740776&start=3

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 5, 2009 Monday 
 
Photo of missing Butler County boy may be released today

Jan. 5--Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy plans to release more information at 10 a.m. today about the investigation of a boy who apparently disappeared nine years ago.

An attorney for Adam Herrman's adoptive parents said he ran away about nine years ago, when he was 11 or 12, though he told The Eagle they didn't report it and feel "horribly guilty" for not doing it.

Adam's older biological sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, now 22 and living in Wichita, said that over the years she called Adam's adoptive mother to ask how he was doing.

At first, the adoptive mother said Adam was OK, but later she told Broadfoot not to call, Broadfoot said.

Broadfoot said investigators planned to collect a DNA sample from her today or Tuesday. The investigators said they also plan to release Adam's picture to the media today, Broadfoot said.

So far, Murphy has said that the boy has possibly been missing since 1999, when he was 11 or 12 and living at a Towanda mobile home park, that no one ever reported him missing, and that detectives began investigating after a recent tip to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit.

Investigators couldn't find any evidence that Adam is alive, Murphy said. Investigators searched part of the mobile home park last week.

Check http://www.kansas.com for updates.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:906740749&start=4

Posted on Tue, Jan. 06, 2009
Relatives say missing Butler County boy was abused
On Super Bowl Sunday in 1999, the year Adam Herrman went missing but no one reported it, one of his aunts says she saw the 11-year-old chained to a bathtub faucet at his Towanda mobile home.

It looked like he had handcuffs on, said his aunt, Kim Winslow. Winslow, now 48, said it was the last time she saw Adam.

Other close relatives of Adam's adoptive mother, Valerie Herrman of Derby, say they saw her abuse him over the years and that he was forced to sleep in a bathtub. In at least one instance, a relative reported alleged abuse to authorities.

Butler County sheriff's officers plan to bring in search dogs and ground-penetrating radar to help solve the mystery of what happened to Adam Herrman.

The Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit received a tip about a month ago that the child had not been seen for nine years.

Detectives are investigating the case as if Adam were dead, even though they can't rule out that he is still alive, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference Monday.

Warner Eisenbise, the Wichita attorney representing Herrman and her husband, Doug Herrman, Adam's adoptive father, said, "I firmly believe that they are innocent and had nothing to do with his death, if in fact he died."

But Eisenbise conceded that it is possible that the parents could be charged with failing to report a missing child.

Murphy released a fourth-grade picture of Adam, who authorities think disappeared from Towanda in the summer of 1999 when he was 11 or 12. Murphy asked the public to call with any information.

Relatives say Valerie Herrman, who is in her early 50s, had told them over the years that Adam was taken back into state custody. Recently, the adoptive parents have said through their attorney that Adam ran away and they did not report it.

Law enforcement agencies are bringing in search dogs from other states, Butler County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Kelly Herzet said.

"We're asking for all the resources we can ask for on this case," Herzet said.

Relatives' accounts

Winslow said Valerie Herrman, her sister, had told her that Super Bowl Sunday in 1999 that she locked Adam in the bathroom because he was behaving badly. But Winslow said she never saw Adam be a problem child or disobey Herrman.

Winslow, now living outside the Wichita area, and some of Herrman's other close relatives said they saw Herrman abuse Adam other times over the years but for the most part didn't report it and now feel terrible that he is missing.

When Adam was younger, maybe 7 or 8, and living with his adoptive family in Derby, Winslow said she heard her sister tell Adam to eat food that his younger siblings had left on their plates. He told her he was full, and she hit the back of his head, causing his face to come down in a plate, Winslow said.

Winslow said it bothered her. "I went over to him, and I rubbed his little head... and I talked to him" to soothe him, she said.

"I feel sick" for not reporting the incident, she said.

She said can't remember seeing Herrman be affectionate to Adam, as she was to her other children.

A brother's memory

Justin Herrman, 29, who is the biological son of Valerie and Doug Herrman, said he never saw his father abuse Adam.

"He's actually stopped it many times," said Justin Herrman, who was about 7 years older than Adam.

Over the years, at different homes around the Wichita area, his mother "would start hitting him or beating him with a belt," Justin said.

His father "would stop her and say, 'That's enough, Valerie,' " he said.

One time, Justin Herrman said, his mother threw Adam, then around 4 or 5, against a wall and pulled his hair, and Justin stepped in to stop it.

Justin Herrman said he called to report it and Derby police officers came to the home. But he said his mother persuaded him to tell the police that he lied. He said the officers lectured him about lying and left.

His mother started locking Adam in the bathroom, and the boy slept in the bathtub, Justin Herrman said.

"She would just tell us he was threatening us," and that he had mental problems and couldn't be trusted, Justin Herrman said of his mother.

He said that for years his mother told the family that Adam had gone back into state custody and only recently said that he ran away.

'We all believed it'

Margaret Davis, mother of Valerie Herrman, said she was stunned to hear that the attorney now says that Adam ran away.

Valerie and Doug Herrman had a number of foster children before adopting Adam and his two younger siblings, Davis said.

She said her daughter "can be very, very mean sometimes" and that they have been estranged off and on.

Once, at a Derby home where the Herrmans lived before they moved to Towanda, Valerie's aunt had to use the bathroom, and Valerie Herrman had to unlock it first.

Behind the locked bathroom door, Davis said, she saw Adam in the tub with a pillow and blanket.

Valerie Herrman told Adam to go immediately to his bedroom, and he obeyed, Davis said.

"She told us that he had threatened them... he was going to wait until they went to sleep, and he was going to kill them," Davis said.

Although Davis said she wasn't around Adam much, she said that when she was, he seemed to be "a darling little boy."

She said her daughter told the family that Adam went back into state custody. "We all believed it," she said.

Christmas Eve call

Linda Bush, a former sister-in-law of Valerie Herrman, said Valerie Herrman called her Dec. 24 and in a shaky voice told her that Adam was missing and that investigators suspected the Herrmans had something to do with his disappearance.

Bush, 55, of Wichita, said Valerie Herrman asked her to call detectives investigating his disappearance "and tell them about how they loved Adam, and she only wanted to do good when they took in foster children... that they would never hurt a child."

Bush said she never called the detectives.

In the Christmas Eve conversation, Valerie Herrman told her former sister-in-law "that she beat Adam once with a belt" and that Valerie had gone into her room and cried about it, remorseful.

Bush said Valerie Herrman told her that that after she used the belt, someone at Adam's school saw bruises, and authorities were called to investigate.

Authorities' next steps

At the news conference, Murphy said this is the first case he has dealt with in which officers didn't learn that a child was missing until years later.

Sheriff's officers searched the Towanda mobile home park last week where the family once lived but did not find any human remains, Murphy said.

Investigators are planning to conduct more searches but have not said where.

Murphy said Adam, who is described as having brown hair and brown eyes, may have been home-schooled. They believe he disappeared during the summer of 1999. According to records, the family moved from Towanda to the town of Sedgwick later that fall.

Investigators plan to release a computer-enhanced photo soon showing what Adam would look like today if he is still alive. He was born June 8, 1987, in Wichita and would now be 21.

http://www.kansas.com/news/story/652772.html

The Adam Herrman Case Slideshow
http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/010509missing/

I have been reading about this case, amazing isn't it that a child can go missing for so long and not be accounted for? or should I say others could so easily be deceived about it? ::MonkeyNoNo::

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
January 7, 2009 Wednesday 
 
Adoptive mother denies she abused missing boy

Jan. 7--Adam Herrman's adoptive mother Tuesday denied allegations by relatives who say they saw her abuse the boy over the years before he disappeared.

"They make it sound like I tortured him, but I loved him," Valerie Herrman said in an interview with The Eagle.

She said Adam ran away from their Towanda home nearly 10 years ago when he was 11, after she spanked him with a belt. She was upset but can't remember why, she said.

Adam's disappearance -- discovered by Butler County investigators only recently after a tip to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit -- has triggered an intense investigation that has drawn national attention. Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said Monday that investigators are treating the disappearance as a death but haven't ruled out that Adam is alive.

Herrman said she and her husband, Doug, never reported Adam missing because they feared the spanking would lead authorities to take Adam and his two younger siblings away. They told relatives that Adam, whom the couple had adopted when he was a little over 2, had gone back to state custody.

The Herrmans said they had lived a lie and regret it.

In court documents, they continued to list Adam as a son in 2003, more than four years after he disappeared. If they had not, it would have drawn scrutiny that also could have led to their children being taken away, Doug Herrman said in the interview.

For the same reason, they continued to accept state adoption subsidy payments for Adam until his 18th birthday, Valerie Herrman said. She said she sent back a check she received after his 18th birthday.

"I feel very guilty about stealing that money," she said tearfully.

"It was $700 a month. I kept hoping he was going to come back, though."

The 52-year-old woman, who now lives in Derby, said she regrets lying to relatives for almost a decade by saying Adam was returned to state custody. "But I didn't know anything else to do," she said.

She and her 54-year-old husband, who held her hand during the interview, said Adam's disappearance has weighed on them since that day in May 1999 when they say Adam ran out the front door of their Towanda home and never came back.

Valerie Herrman said that at times she has lain awake, crying and wondering and worrying about what happened to her oldest adoptive son.

"I just wish I'd turned back the clock and called now" to report him missing, she said.

She was tearful during most of the more than two-hour interview.

"We love him, and we made a terrible mistake" by not reporting him missing, Doug Herrman said.

'They weren't there'

She denied allegations, from her sister and two biological children that she punched and kicked Adam over the years, beat him with a belt buckle and kept him chained to the bathtub faucet in the home.

She also denied that she withheld food from Adam. Sometimes, she said, he would overeat to the point of getting sick.

She said that at times she kept Adam locked in the bathroom at night under the advice of a psychiatrist after they found two knives under Adam's pillow when he was about 8, when they lived in Derby.

"He said he was going to kill us," she said.

They turned around the bathroom doorknob so it could be locked from the outside, she said.

"He slept in the bathtub," she said, with a sleeping bag, sheet, pillow and blanket. He was locked in only at night, and it was for his and their protection, she said.

"There was no chains, no handcuffs."

At another point, she said, "The ones who are saying he was mistreated, they weren't there."

Asked how long he was kept in the bathroom at night, she said it occurred possibly over a two- to three-month period, although she couldn't remember exactly how long.

The Herrmans said Adam was their most difficult child. "But that sure as heck doesn't mean that we loved him any less," Doug Herrman said.

Valerie Herrman said they provided Adam a bicycle, Rollerblades, Nintendo and art supplies. "He loved to draw," she said.

Psychiatrists said Adam was either bipolar or schizophrenic or suffering from attachment disorder, they said.

Past foster parents

At times, the Herrmans were foster parents for several of Adam's siblings. He was born in Wichita on June 8, 1987, and was adopted by the Herrmans a couple of years later. They also adopted two of his younger siblings.

The Herrmans have two biological children who are older than Adam, but Valerie Herrman said she was not able to have any more biological children. They wanted a large family, Doug Herrman said. They said they also wanted to keep Adam and his biological siblings together.

At one point when Adam was younger, around 1990 or 1991, the Herrmans said they lost their foster care license after an investigation, which they declined to discuss in detail. They said authorities removed one of Adam's younger sisters, then about 2, but said she was not removed because of child abuse.

They said they had bonded with the girl and hoped to adopt her also and were devastated that she was taken from them.

Valerie Herrman said that she remembers the girl trying to cling to her as authorities took her away. "I still think about that child," she said.

The trauma of that experience would later figure heavily in their decision not to report Adam missing, fearing that it would bring investigators back and that they could lose their remaining children, Valerie Herrman said.

She described Adam as "shy, bashful, quiet, smart, sweet. But he also had problems."

She said he got into trouble at school, sometimes by stealing.

Around 1996, she said, she spanked Adam with a belt, and his psychological counselor saw bruises and called police. "That's her job. I don't hold that against anybody," she said.

"I hated myself for it," she said of the spanking. She said she had been spanked with a belt as a child and vowed she would not do that to her children.

Adam went to the Wichita Children's Home for two days, then came home, she said.

Doug Herrman said: "I don't think they felt he was in any danger. They just told us we couldn't discipline him with a belt."

Valerie Herrman said: "After that, I was too scared to spank him. He hardly ever got a spanking after that.

"I was afraid to lose the kids."

Because Adam had problems at school, she homeschooled him after they had moved from Derby to Towanda, she said. He attended public school in Towanda for a short time, she said.

"He hated school" but was a "very smart kid," she said.

"He liked being home with me, and he got a lot of one-on- one attention."

She said his younger siblings attended public school in Towanda.

Searching for Adam

During the first week of May 1999, possibly on the weekend, she said, she spanked Adam with a belt one afternoon.

"He got mad, and he said he's going to run away," Doug Herrman said. "He ran out the front door."

Valerie Herrman was the manager of their mobile home park on the south side of Towanda.

Doug Herrman said, "I waited probably 30 minutes for him (Adam) to calm down" before starting to look for the boy around some sheds and a storm shelter.

Adam had run away several times before, once when he was around 8 while they were camping in Council Grove, Valerie Herrman said. They said they found him at a convenience store.

Asked why he ran away, Valerie Herrman said, "I think it was for attention."

That May night in 1999, when it started to turn dark, Doug Herrman said he drove through the mobile home park, got out several times to see if Adam was hiding and drove toward town, searching.

"We thought surely he's going to show up," Doug Herrman said.

By around midnight, he said, "I was really getting scared... because he didn't come home yet."

"I spent all night driving around," he continued, thinking that Adam, in an attempt to hide, had possibly crawled in somewhere and gone to sleep.

The next morning, he said, the whole family drove around, looking for Adam. They looked again on a second day, including along a nearby creek or river.

He said his wife dropped him off, and he walked down a tree line, looking.

"Then we came to the conclusion that the police probably have him, and they're coming to us, probably to get us in trouble," Doug Herrman said.

They went home and waited, but the "police never came," he said.

They said they also feared getting into trouble if they contacted police a few days after Adam disappeared.

"Then," Valerie said, "after two weeks, I was going to call, picked up the phone" -- to report Adam missing. But she said she put the phone down. "All I could think about was losing more kids," she said.

"We never stopped praying for him.

"People think I just went on with my life. I didn't."

Doug Herrman added: "We have never forgot him."

Asked if they know what happened to Adam, Doug said, "I think he's out there.

"I feel that he went on. He changed his name. He's a very tough kid."

About a year ago, he said he saw a young man --"what Adam would look like to me" -- walking near Murdock and Washington. By the time he drove back to look closer, the young man was gone.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:907338217&start=6

Police to search home, river for Kansas boy missing since 1999

Authorities investigating the case of a boy who disappeared in Kansas almost a decade ago plan to search an undisclosed residence Wednesday, the Butler County sheriff said.

Sheriff Craig Murphy would not disclose details about the residence or why authorities want to search it.

He said his department will also search on an area of the Whitewater River, in southern Kansas, on Saturday near where Adam Herrman was last seen.

Adam was 11 when he went missing in 1999. He was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a town about 25 miles northeast of Wichita, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, authorities said.

Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple believed Adam had run away and didn't report him missing. They "really rue the fact that they didn't" report him missing, he said Monday.

A few weeks ago, an undisclosed person contacted the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, expressing concern about Adam, the sheriff said.

The Herrmans told Eisenbise that Adam ran away frequently, the attorney said, and they believed he was either with his biological parents or homeless. Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, "they were very worried about him," Eisenbise said.

In an interview published Tuesday in The Wichita Eagle, Valerie Herrman said Adam ran away in May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt. She said she was upset but doesn't remember why, The Eagle reported.

The couple never reported Adam missing, Valerie Herrman told the paper, because they feared authorities would take Adam and his siblings away because of the spanking.

The couple adopted his two younger siblings as well, according to The Eagle.

"We love him, and we made a terrible mistake" by not reporting him missing, Doug Herrman told The Eagle. The couple said they searched the mobile home park and other areas for two days after Adam left.

"Then we came to the conclusion that the police probably have him, and they're coming to us, probably to get us in trouble," Doug Herrman told the newspaper, but the "police never came."

Authorities have searched an empty lot in the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park where the family lived. There, police found an "answer" to one of their questions, Murphy said Monday without elaborating.

Eisenbise said that on December 15, authorities also searched the Herrmans' homes in Derby, outside of Wichita, and took the couple's computer, he said.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released an age-progression picture that depicts Adam as he might appear now: a young man with blue eyes and light-colored hair.

Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said Monday.

He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed. His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported.

"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children, and evidently it wasn't," Irvin Groeninger, Adam's biological father, told KWCH. "If he was still in my custody, this would have never happened."

Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she had last seen her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party.

"He had the cutest little round face, little-bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek," she told the station.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/07/kansas.boy.missing/index.html?eref=rss_latest

From the above link>>>
An age-progression photo shows what Adam Herrman would like today, as a 21-year-old man.



*I just want to add my opinion. I do not think this child is alive. IMO, he was dead the day he vanished. Not a runaway  ::MonkeyNoNo::

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 8, 2009 Thursday 
 
MISSING BOY'S SISTER WAS ONE WHO CALLED OFFICIALS
 
Jan. 8--Tip led to discovery Adam Herrman had vanished

For years, Crystal says, she felt bad about how her mother treated her younger, adopted brother -- Adam Herrman, who would be 21 now if he is still alive. One pivotal day more than a month ago, she brought her concern to the state. Her action led to the discovery that Adam disappeared in 1999, and it triggered an ongoing law enforcement investigation into what happened to him.

Crystal, now 31, said she saw her mother, Valerie Herrman, kick and punch Adam and spank him with the metal buckle of a belt. Valerie Herrman also stepped on his bare feet with her heels, said Crystal, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her children's privacy.

Crystal said she also saw Adam being kept in a locked bathroom.

Valerie Herrman, now 52 and living in Derby, denied the abuse allegations but said she did spank Adam with a belt twice and kept him locked in a bathroom at times under the advice of a psychiatrist after he threatened the family.

Crystal said she and her younger biological brother, Justin Herrman, tried to protect Adam over the years. In 1999, she said, her mother told them that Adam had gone back into state custody.

Crystal tried to search the Internet for Adam's name in an attempt to find him or learn something about him. "And I would never get anywhere," she said. She thought maybe he had been adopted again and had a new name.

The first step

Eventually, a cousin encouraged her to seek closure about the abuse she says she saw.

So around Thanksgiving, she said, she called the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services seeking information about Adam.

"I just wanted to find him," she said.

She wanted to tell him: "I'm sorry for how you were treated."

SRS indicated that Adam had been with their parents until 2005, when he would have been 18. That didn't make sense to Crystal because she hadn't seen him since 1999, when he was about 11.

After the phone conversation with SRS, Crystal said, she had to make a decision: pursue it or let it go.

She waited a few hours.

"That's when I decided that in Adam's best interest, it was time for something to be done....

"It was hard because it was my parents," she said.

That same day, she called SRS back and said the agency's records are incorrect and that Adam had not been in his adoptive parents home since 1999.

SRS told her that Adam had been "emancipated in 2005," and that his last address was in Derby, according to the records.

She asked SRS if Adam had been returned to state custody, and the agency said he had not, contradicting her parents.

"Then I told them basically that we hadn't seen him since 1999, that our parents told us he went back to the state... that he was in a boarding school or a mental hospital," she said.

Alleged abuse

The next day, she was asked to meet with an SRS caseworker in Wichita, and she told the caseworker about the abuse she says she saw.

She said she saw Adam being locked in a bathroom at the family's home in Derby -- before they moved to Towanda -- and that she and her brother Justin would sneak Adam food because they didn't know when her mother would feed him.

"Towards the end, he was pretty much mostly in the bathroom," Crystal said.

Other relatives have said they saw Adam locked in the bathroom; Valerie Herrman told The Eagle that Adam was locked in the bathroom only when he slept, and that she gave him a sleeping bag, sheet, blanket and pillow.

He was locked in the bathroom after knives had been found under his pillow and he had threatened to kill the family, Valerie Herrman said.

The Herrmans say Adam had psychological problems.

Crystal disagreed. "I never saw any type of mental problems" with Adam, she said.

Crystal said she had left her parents' home in 1994, when she was about 17 and Adam was about 7. Although she wasn't always around Adam, she said she saw him enough to think that he was being treated badly.

Adam and her mother never seemed to bond, Crystal said.

Valerie Herrman said Adam had been a difficult child but that she loved him and missed him. She said he ran away in 1999 and never returned. She and her husband, Doug, say they didn't report Adam missing because they feared it would lead to him and his younger siblings being taken from them.

Crystal said that when her mother abused Adam, she tried to protect him.

"When she would do those things, I would get in the middle of it, and I would tell Adam to run."

Crystal said the last time she saw Adam was around the spring of 1999 when the family was moving from Derby to the Towanda mobile home park where authorities say he disappeared.

Her worst fear

Crystal described her mother this way: "She can be the sweetest person in the world one second and then in the next second, she can just be a monster.

"I beat myself up every day because I wish I had turned her in. If I knew it was going to lead to a missing boy, you bet. I kept praying it would get better. I kept begging my dad to help us.

"My dad never abused Adam. He never stopped it, but he never abused him."

The SRS caseworker who talked with Crystal indicated she would contact the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, and the day after her interview with the caseworker, the unit contacted her, she said.

"All of the detectives have told me it's the most bizarre case they've ever dealt with," she said.

Crystal said she knows detectives are working hard to find Adam.

But, she said, "My worst fear is they will never find him and will never have all the answers."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:907889582&start=1

Missing Kan. boy was once briefly in state custody

By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press Writer
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A boy whose disappearance went unreported for 10 years was once taken away from his adoptive parents, then returned days later, Kansas' social services agency said Thursday.

Adam Herrman was in protective custody for two days in 1996 after a report of physical abuse, said Michelle Ponce, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. The boy was returned to his adoptive parents, Valerie and Doug Herrman, after authorities reviewed the evidence and found the report unsubstantiated.

"We are doing a thorough review of all our case records involving Adam and his family," Ponce said.

The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services confirmed Thursday that the Herrmans continued to receive adoption subsidy payments for Adam after he was missing, but the agency could not immediately determine how much. The department said it was researching the case.

Such subsidies generally are given in situations where the children are difficult to place or in cases in which several siblings are adopted by the same family, she said.

The Herrmans adopted Adam and two of his younger siblings, family members have said.

Families receiving adoption subsidies are required to file a yearly report to verify ongoing legal and financial responsibility for the child, she said.

"If there were a situation in which an individual would knowingly supply false information to the state in order to receive benefits, that is a crime," Ponce said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MISSING_BOY_SEARCH?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 9, 2009 Friday 
 
Most missing kids reported quickly

Jan. 9--The investigation into the 1999 disappearance of 11-year-old Adam Herrman had several law enforcement experts struggling Thursday to think of a more unusual case.

There have been cases where a person has been missing for years before a body is found and a criminal investigation is launched.

There have been plenty of cases where the parents of missing children have failed to file reports in a timely manner. But it's usually a delay of a few days or weeks.

But the case of Adam, who was reported missing by a relative only seven weeks ago, has drawn widespread attention and speculation from around the country.

"I'll be honest with you, I can't think of a single case like this," former Sedgwick County District Attorney and Sheriff Vern Miller said of the delay in filing Adam's missing person report. "I've known them to wait a week or two -- maybe three or four -- where they say they think he's gone off to his dad's. And usually that's what happens.... I don't remember a single case like this."

The Butler County Sheriff's Office began investigating Adam's disappearance after authorities received a tip from a relative of Adam's who said he disappeared from his parents' Towanda home in 1999.

The parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, later told authorities that Adam ran away in 1999, and they said they failed to report it because they were afraid of losing their other children.

Investigators said the Herrmans told relatives that Adam, whom they had adopted when he was 2, had gone back into state custody.

Brian Withrow, an associate professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University, said the fascination with the case probably stems from the behavior of Adams' adoptive family.

"These people lied for 10 years; that's what makes this different," he said. "They just flat-out lied to everybody who cared to ask. They made up stories for 10 years.

"Normally, when you have a person that's missing -- particularly a child -- there's a report made. Somebody misses that person, and then you go looking for that person. Sometimes you find him and sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's months before you find him, and sometimes it's years."

Searching for clues

Butler County sheriff's investigators on Wednesday searched a mobile home in the 10300 block of North 109th Street West. It's the home where Adam and his parents lived in 1999, when it was in the Pine Ridge mobile home park in Towanda.

Sheriff Craig Murphy said Thursday that the search consisted mainly of taking pictures of the home and making diagrams of the floor plan.

He said detectives spent Thursday going over their findings and following leads.

On Saturday, Murphy said, investigators plan to use dogs to search the banks of the Whitewater River west of Towanda. The area is popular with anglers and children, Murphy said, and Adam may have gone there if he ran away from home in 1999.

Withrow said that if Adam's remains are ever found, there's a good chance they'll tell investigators a lot about how he died.

"There's all sorts of evidence that can come from a body," he said. "Whether it will tell you who did it, probably not."

Although authorities appear to be at a dead end in the search for Adam, Withrow said there's a good chance that the case will be resolved soon.

"I think that somebody's going to step up with information that will lead authorities to a resolution," he said. "My gut feeling is that somebody's going to step up and say something."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:908764210&start=3

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 14, 2009 Wednesday 
 
 
No human remains found beneath Towanda storage shed

Jan. 14--Authorities spent several hours today digging under a storage shed installed at about the time 11-year-old Adam Herrman of Towanda went missing 10 years ago, but found no human remains.

"We're done here," Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said shortly after 1:30 p.m. at the Pine Ridge Trailer Park on the south edge of Towanda.

The missing boy lived with his adoptive parents in a home next to the storage shed when he was last seen in 1999. His adoptive mother was manager of the trailer park at the time.

The excavation was prompted from an out-of-state tip, Murphy said. The case has attracted national attention, prompting tips from around the country.

"This lot was the last place he was seen," Murphy said.

The storage shed was installed at about the same time the boy disappeared. While some items were found beneath the concrete pad of shed, he said, there were no human remains.

"We would like to find remains, but it's a long shot... it's been 10 years now." Murphy said.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Adam is still alive. He would be 21 now, and authorities have released a computer-generated photograph of what he might look like today.

"From here, we're going to be moving on, evaluating the case," Murphy said.

Murphy adamantly denied the case has grown cold.

"It is not cold," he said. "It's very active. It's going to stay active, and it's going to come to a conclusion sooner or later."

Murphy said investigators have found "some things" in the course of today's dig, but he wouldn't elaborate.

Along with an excavator, investigators used a "sniffer" -- a device used to detect gases emitted by a body -- at the dig site.

They dug a hole about five feet deep beneath and west of the storage shed.

Peer Moore-Jansen, chairman of the anthropology department at Wichita State University, and other people with him assisted with the excavation.

They also assisted in Saturday's search for the boy along the banks of the Whitewater River on the west side of Towanda.

Today is not the first visit authorities have made to the storage shed site, Murphy said. Investigators had holes drilled into the storage shed pad and probed for evidence on New Year's Eve.

Murphy has said that investigators found an "answer" during the earlier search, but he still won't say what that answer was.

Today's search is connected to that answer, he said.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:911293372&start=5

Adoptive Parents of Boy Missing Since 1999 Could Face Murder Charges
Saturday, January 17, 2009

TOWANDA, Kan.  —  A county prosecutor says the adoptive parents of an 11-year-old boy who has been missing for nearly a decade are suspects in his disappearance and could face murder charges.

Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield says no human remains have been found in the search for Adam Herrman, but there's still a chance for first-degree murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse.

"They are the suspects in this case," Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said of Doug and Valerie Herrman.

Satterfield told The Wichita Eagle that although investigators haven't ruled out the possibility that Adam — who would be 21 now — is alive, they have found "no indication that he exists out there."

Adam was a toddler when he came to the Herrmans, who later adopted him.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480428,00.html

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 21, 2009 Wednesday 
 
Search for missing boy to resume: Officials will look for Adam Herrman again Saturday along the Whitewater River, the Butler County sheriff said.
 
Jan. 21--Investigators searching for remains of an 11-year-old boy who disappeared in 1999 will look again along the Whitewater River near Towanda, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said Tuesday.

"We are going back to the river Saturday," searching for any evidence that could be connected to Adam Herrman's disappearance, Murphy said.

As with a search for Adam earlier this month, investigators on Saturday will be assisted by anthropology experts and search dogs, Murphy said.

Saturday's search, which will begin around 8 a.m., will go farther south along the Whitewater, for about 2 miles. The river runs along the west side of Towanda.

Valerie Herrman told The Eagle that Adam ran away the first week in May 1999 and never returned.

She said that Adam ran away after she spanked him with a belt. The Herrmans said they didn't report Adam missing because they feared the spanking would prompt authorities to take away Adam and his two younger siblings. For years, the Herrmans explained Adam's absence to relatives by saying he had been returned to the state's custody because he had behavior problems, the relatives said.

The relatives told The Eagle that Valerie Herrman had abused Adam for years -- an allegation she denies.

In an interview Friday, Butler County's chief prosecutor, County Attorney Jan Satterfield, said that the Herrmans are suspects in his disappearance and that the investigation could result in first-degree felony murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse.

The Herrmans have not been charged with any crime, and Valerie Herrman's attorney, Warner Eisenbise, has said that Valerie Herrman denies harming Adam.

Attorney Dan Monnat, whose firm is representing Doug Herrman, said, "Doug Hermann is innocent of any act resulting in the disappearance of Adam Herrman."

On Tuesday, Murphy said that his detectives are "still working through leads," including "a few leads that have sparked our interest." He wouldn't elaborate.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:914141507&start=3

The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
 
January 25, 2009 Sunday 
 
 
Bathroom at center of search for Adam: BATHROOM AT CENTER OF SEARCH FOR ADAM HERRMAN
 
Jan. 25--In a recent search of the home where 11-year-old Adam Herrman lived when he disappeared in 1999, investigators spent three hours checking a bathroom for clues and used a chemical that can detect blood traces, the current homeowner said.

Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said Saturday he couldn't comment on whether investigators obtained evidence but confirmed that the search focused on the bathroom.

"We looked at every inch of that bathroom," Murphy said in Towanda, where search teams Saturday scoured the east bank of the Whitewater River but found no remains of the missing boy. His decade-old disappearance was discovered late last year after a tip to authorities.

Close relatives of Adam's adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, have said they saw him being kept for long periods in the bathroom, when the manufactured home sat in a Towanda mobile home park, before being moved to Sedgwick County.

Valerie Herrman has said that she kept her adoptive son in a bathroom at night, with plenty of bedding, on the advice of a psychiatrist after he threatened the family.

A new search along the Whitewater River at Towanda on Saturday found "nothing of any interest," Murphy said. It was the second search that investigators have conducted along the river this month, looking for Adam's remains.

When he disappeared about 10 years ago, he and his adoptive family were living in a Towanda mobile home park east of the river. In the months after he disappeared, the family moved the manufactured home to a lot in rural northwest Sedgwick County. Investigators searched the home at that site on Jan. 7. The Herrmans now live in Derby.

Dan McDaniel, the home's current owner, told The Eagle on Friday that investigators focused on a bathroom off the hallway.

McDaniel said he knows the investigators used luminol -- a chemical used to detect tiny traces of blood -- because they provided directions for cleaning up powdery residue left by the forensic tool.

Investigators worked in the bathroom for about three hours but apparently didn't dismantle or remove anything in the bathroom, he said.

They didn't say whether they detected any blood, he said.

The investigators apologized for the disruption, McDaniel said, but it didn't bother him. "That's a minimal disruption if it helps solve a case like this," he said.

McDaniel's wife, Sheri, said of Adam, who would be 21 now, "I just hope that maybe he's still alive."

Murphy has said that investigators have not ruled out that Adam is alive, but Murphy also has consistently said that investigators are looking for Adam's remains.

The McDaniels, in their 50s, have lived in the home since May 2003.

Although the couple know that the home is being investigated as part of a possible homicide, Dan McDaniel said it doesn't bother him.

"As far as living in the home, no, I'm not uncomfortable," he said. "The house hasn't done anything wrong."

'Not entertainment'

On Saturday, at the search staging area in Towanda, Murphy said he agreed with a recent comment The Eagle obtained from Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield, the county's chief prosecutor. Satterfield said publicly for the first time that Doug and Valerie Herrman are suspects in their adoptive son's disappearance.

"Yes, they are very possible suspects," Murphy said Saturday.

Satterfield also told The Eagle that the investigation could result in first-degree felony murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse.

On Thursday, Satterfield said that investigators are "making progress" and are giving her regular briefings about the case.

Satterfield said she is reviewing state child welfare records and medical records on Adam. He was the Herrmans' foster child before his adoption by them was finalized in August 1993, when he was 6.

No charges have been filed against the Herrmans, and they and their attorneys have said they are innocent.

Referring to the Herrmans, Murphy said they have been the focus of the investigation because they had responsibility for Adam.

Noting that the case has drawn the attention of national talk shows, Murphy said, "It makes (for) interesting conversations." But he added, "They don't know what we know."

"This is not entertainment," Murphy said. "This is about Adam Herrman, a boy who went missing. What happened to him, and who's responsible?"

River search continues

For several hours Saturday, starting about 10 a.m., about 15 people searched woods along the Whitewater River on the southwest side of Towanda.

The searchers included Butler County sheriff's investigators, Wichita police with the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, and a Wichita State University forensic anthropology expert and four students. One of the students carried a small digging tool.

In a tree line, a search dog darted through waist-deep weeds with its head down.

Murphy said the search dogs are trained to detect blood, tissue and bones.

Shortly after the search began, Murphy said, "We don't know what we're going to find. We don't know what to expect."

He said the search location is not the result of a tip but is based on common sense -- that it is in a secluded area along a body of water, where the boy's remains could be found.

"We feel it's our duty to at least look, even though it's 10 years later," he said.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:915936492&start=8

Another River Search Planned for Missing Kansas Boy
Last Updated: 11:28 PM Feb 5, 2009
TOWANDA, Kan. (AP) _ Authorities plan another search this weekend along the Whitewater River for clues in the nearly decade-old disappearance of a south-central Kansas boy.

Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said Thursday that his investigators will search the west bank of the river near Towanda on Saturday morning.

Investigators started looking for Adam Herrman late last year after getting a tip that he hasn't been seen since 1999. He disappeared while living at a mobile home park near the river with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman.

The Herrmans have said the boy ran away, and they didn't report it out of fear the state would take him and other children away from them.

This weekend's search will be the third of the river area.

http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/39184622.html

Search for missing boy finds no evidence

Posted on Sat, Feb. 07, 2009 09:34 AM
Investigators didn't find any evidence today in their third search along the Whitewater River for remains of Adam Herrman, the 11-year-old boy who disappeared 10 years ago, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said.

About 20 people, including investigators, anthropological experts and search dog teams, took part, Murphy said.

Adam disappeared in 1999 from a Towanda mobile home park where he lived with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. They have said that he ran away and they didn't report it. Authorities discovered his disappearance late last year when his older adoptive sister brought her concerns about him to authorities.

The next planned search -- of woods south of the mobile home park -- is Feb. 21, Murphy said.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1022541.html

TOWANDA, Kan., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Police in Towanda, Kan., say their latest search for a boy who vanished a decade ago but wasn't reported missing by his adoptive parents was fruitless.

Adam Herrman, then age 11, disappeared in 1999 from a mobile home park where he and two siblings lived with Doug and Valerie Herrman, now suspects in his disappearance, The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle reported Sunday.

The boy's case came to light late last year when an adoptive sister contacted police. The Herrmans, in an interview with the Eagle, said he vanished after being spanked with a belt and they didn't report him missing because they feared losing custody of the boy and the two younger siblings.

Detectives, forensic anthropologists and police dogs found no clues to his whereabouts Saturday when they searched a stretch of riverbank near the mobile home park, the third search in recent weeks, said Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/02/08/Police_search_for_boy_missing_a_decade/UPI-69041234109425/

Shame on all of them....  ::MonkeyNoNo::
http://www.kansas.com/news/story/699720.html

Posted on Sat, Feb. 14, 2009

ADAM HERRMAN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW REGRETS NOT ACTING

In hindsight, Adam Herrman's adoptive brother-in-law says, he feels guilty for not calling police about an incident he says he witnessed a year or so before the boy disappeared.

Back then, the brother-in-law said, he was upset and confused -- but did not call authorities -- over an incident at a Derby house where Adam lived with his adoptive parents before moving to Towanda.

Adam, who was 10 or 11 at the time, grasped his arm and asked for help, the brother-in-law said. His first name is Steven; he asked that his last name not be used to protect his children's privacy.

Late last year, Steven learned that Adam has been missing since 1999. The discovery that he has been missing for a decade has triggered an investigation in which the Butler County prosecutor has said that Adam's adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, are suspects and that murder charges are possible, based on an underlying crime of a child abuse.

Doug and Valerie Herrman and their lawyers say they are innocent.

'Steven, help me'

Steven, now 40, said the incident occurred at a duplex in the 300 block of South Willow. He said he was visiting his in-laws' duplex and went to use a basement bathroom. But the light wouldn't turn on because the bulb had been removed.

As he was closing the bathroom door, from inside the bathroom, a small hand grasped his arm, he said.

"Steven, help me," the person said, in a flat tone, he said.

Steven said he realized it was Adam.

He said he had Adam move over to a lighted area in the basement and told him to sit in a recliner.

Steven said he saw a yellowish bruise around Adam's eye and scratches of more than an inch long on the boy's face. The scratches appeared to be healing.

He didn't visit the house very often and didn't remember seeing injuries on Adam before, he said.

Describing his feelings at the time, Steven said, "I just didn't understand. Why's he asking for help? Why's he in the bathroom" -- in the dark?

"Maybe I should have sat down and talked to him a little longer," he said.

Steven said he told Adam to stay there and went outside to talk to Doug Herrman, who was working by the garage.

Steven said he was upset. He said he told Doug Herrman something like, "You need to fix this, or I'm calling the police."

Days later, Steven said, Doug Herrman told him that he, Valerie and Adam were attending counseling sessions and that everything was OK.

Steven said that at the time he felt assured that the situation was resolved.

Later, when he saw Adam, "He looked fine."

'She's very caring'

Some of Valerie Herrman's close relatives have accused her of abusing Adam over the years.

She told The Eagle that she sometimes kept Adam in a bathroom, on the advice of a psychiatrist, after he threatened the family.

Her attorney, Warner Eisenbise, declined to comment on Steven's account of his visit to the Derby duplex.

Eisenbise defended Valerie Herrman, saying, "I've gotten to know Valerie very well. She's very emotional. She's very caring." He said he expects there could be character witnesses who would say that "she baby sat their children, and she was wonderful. She's not the evil person" that some of her relatives have described, he said.

Dan Monnat, whose law firm is representing Doug Herrman, also declined to comment on Steven's account but defended his client. "Doug Herrman is innocent of causing any harm to Adam Herrman," Monnat said.

At the storm shelter

Months after the incident at the duplex, Steven said that he and his wife, Crystal, who is the Herrmans' oldest biological child, moved to a Towanda mobile home park. The Herrmans had moved there from Derby, and Valerie Herrman managed the park.

Steven and his wife lived a few lots from the Herrmans.

Steven said he remembers tornado sirens sounding twice while they lived there. The first time, he saw Adam with others gathered in the park's storm shelter. The shelter sat next to the lot where the Herrmans' manufactured home sat.

Weeks later, when the tornado siren sounded again, Steven said he didn't see Adam at the shelter. He said someone asked Valerie Herrman where Adam was. She said Adam was at home because he was "being bad," Steven said.

Steven said it angered him because he thought Adam would have been at risk if a tornado hit.

In an Eagle interview, Valerie Herrman said Adam ran away in the first week of May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt. Adam was 11 at the time. The Herrmans have said they searched for Adam but couldn't find him. Valerie Herrman said they didn't report Adam missing because they feared the spanking would have caused authorities to take him and his younger siblings into state custody.

Relatives have said that the Herrmans explained Adam's absence by saying that he had gone back to state custody.

In late 2008, Steven's wife, Crystal, took her concerns about Adam's welfare to authorities in Sedgwick County. She had searched the Internet but had not been able to locate Adam. After authorities checked, they determined that Adam has been missing since 1999.

Steven said that after his wife brought her concerns to authorities, he told investigators about the incident at the Derby house.

Murder convictions happen even without a body

The investigation of Adam Herrman's disappearance has gone on for more than two months, and the Butler County prosecutor has said that murder charges are possible.

But so far, no one has uncovered any remains.

This Saturday, Butler County investigators plan to search a fourth time in woods near the Towanda mobile home park where Adam disappeared in 1999 at age 11.

Prosecutors say that even without a body, a case can be made if the state can present enough circumstantial evidence to convince jurors that a person is really dead.

Defense lawyers counter that in a murder case

involving a disappearance, it is difficult to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt without a body or bones that can be linked to the victim.

"All they have is a missing person," said Warner Eisenbise, the Wichita attorney representing Valerie Herrman, Adam's adoptive mother.

"They have conjecture. But conjecture doesn't rise to proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Eisenbise said. "For all we know, this young man is living somewhere. We can argue that there's no body, there's no crime....

"And then we can argue there's a body, (but) who did it?"

Unless investigators "are holding a card that we don't know about, they do not have any physical evidence... even trace evidence proving that the child was a victim of a homicide," Eisenbise said.

It's possible that Valerie Herrman could be charged with child abuse or not reporting Adam missing -- but not murder, he said.

Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield has said that Doug and Valerie Herrman are suspects in Adam's disappearance and that the investigation could lead to murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse.

She could not be reached for comment on what Eisenbise said about the case.

Morrison's view

Paul Morrison, former Kansas attorney general and former Johnson County district attorney, indicated there are elements in the Adam Herrman case that could bolster the prosecution.

It is easier to prove that someone who disappeared was murdered if the person led a stable life, Morrison said. And the longer they remain missing, the easier it is to show they were victims, he said.

As the Johnson County prosecutor in 1990, Morrison obtained murder convictions against Richard Grissom in the deaths of three young women who disappeared in June 1989 and whose bodies were never found. According to court records, all three women were known to be reliable. They weren't likely to disappear unless they had been harmed.

Most children lead stable lives, but an exception is a chronic runaway, said Morrison, who now has a private law practice in Olathe.

Adam had a history of running away, Valerie Herrman said in an Eagle interview.

Convictions do happen

Despite the challenges of proving guilt in a bodyless case, it can be done.

At least four Kansas inmates are serving life sentences in bodyless murder cases. A fifth was paroled in January 2007 after serving more than two decades in prison.

Although Eisenbise has never defended someone in a bodyless case, he said his understanding is that such cases often end up with deadlocked juries.

"And for good reason," because the cases are "purely circumstantial," he said.

Butler County investigators have distributed a computer-generated photo of what Adam might look like now. They have conducted interviews and searched the Towanda mobile home park where Adam disappeared, along the nearby Whitewater River and in the manufactured home where he lived and have executed search warrants at the Herrmans' current home in Derby.

While Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said he has not ruled out that Adam is alive, he has consistently said that investigators are looking for remains.

Murphy has declined to say whether investigators have obtained physical evidence.

Even if investigators find Adam's remains, "that doesn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt my client or the husband did it," Eisenbise said.

Questions raised

In interviews with The Eagle, some of Valerie Herrman's close relatives have accused her of abusing her adoptive son over the years.

Valerie Herrman told The Eagle that authorities once investigated after she spanked Adam with a belt and someone saw bruises. She said she regretted using a belt.

She said Adam ran away in early May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt and that she didn't report his disappearance after he didn't return because she feared it would cause authorities to remove Adam and his two younger siblings from her custody.

But Morrison, the former prosecutor, said the case raises a question: "Why would any parent not immediately report a missing child?"

Court records show that the Herrmans continued to list Adam as a dependent in court documents years after he disappeared. Valerie Herrman said that they continued to accept $700 monthly adoption subsidy payments for Adam until his 18th birthday in 2005 -- six years after he disappeared.

Relatives have said that the Herrmans explained Adam's absence by saying he went back into state custody.

If the prosecutor can successfully argue that the Herrmans lied more than once, it could be used to challenge their credibility, said Morrison, who resigned as attorney general in 2007 after his affair with one of his former district attorney staffers became public.

Would take the Fifth

The Herrmans have suffered since Adam's disappearance and the investigation became known, Eisenbise said.

Because of harassing phone calls from strangers and relatives, the Herrmans have switched to an unlisted phone number, Eisenbise said.

It is possible that Valerie Herrman could receive a subpoena to come in for questioning, under oath, by authorities, Eisenbise said. But so far she has not received a subpoena, he said.

"We would invoke the Fifth Amendment, (for) every question," he said. "We have a right not to say anything. That doesn't mean that we're guilty of anything."

The Herrmans have separate attorneys to ensure each has adequate legal representation, Eisenbise said. Still, they have a joint defense agreement -- allowing their lawyers to share information, he said.

Dan Monnat, whose Wichita law firm is representing Doug Herrman, said his client is "innocent of any harm to Adam Herrman."

"Prosecutors and courts should be very cautious in leaping to the conclusion that disappearance cases are murder cases," Monnat said. The risk, he said, is that an innocent person could be convicted.

Monnat said bodyless cases "usually amount to nothing more than ambiguous circumstantial evidence threaded together by sheer speculation."

Monnat helped to defend a couple in a Stanton County murder case involving a man who disappeared in 2005. The man's body hasn't been found. Murder charges in the case were dismissed last year.

'Dirty word'

Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder said defense attorneys typically refer to circumstantial evidence "as if it's a dirty word."

"Circumstantial evidence sometimes can be more powerful than many other types of evidence," Schroeder said. Direct evidence such as eyewitness testimony can sometimes be unreliable, he said.

Courts define circumstantial evidence "as evidence that tends to prove a fact in issue by proving other events or circumstances" and relying on "reasonable inference by the jury."

Schroeder said he uses an analogy when describing circumstantial evidence to potential jurors: "You didn't have to see it snow to know it snowed."

When prosecuting a case based on circumstantial evidence, he said, "You have to put together the pieces of the puzzle so that missing pieces are obvious."

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

http://www.kansas.com/196/story/700600.html

Sheriff: Enough evidence to charge parents of missing Kansas boy

EL DORADO, Kan. | The Butler County sheriff said Monday he thinks his office has found enough evidence to charge the adoptive parents of a boy whose disappearance went unreported for nearly a decade.

However, no one has been charged in the case of Adam Herrman, and Sheriff Craig Murphy stopped short of speculating what charges should be filed. Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.

Adam's adoptive parents, Valerie and Doug Herrman, could not be reached for comment. They currently live in Derby.

Valerie Herrman's attorney, Warner Eisenbise, declined to comment. However, Eisenbise previously has said that the Herrmans are innocent, that the boy was a frequent runaway, and that they didn't report his disappearance out of fear the state would take him and other children away from them.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1115133.html

Adam Herrman case goes to prosecutors
The case of a then-11-year-old Kansas boy whose disappearance went unreported for nearly a decade is now in the hands of a prosecutor.

The Butler County Sheriff's Office said Monday it has presented its investigation to the county attorney for review and possible charges.

"I feel there is enough to charge the parents....I see charges there," said Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy during a news conference.

The sheriff declined to speculate about what charges might be brought against the adoptive parents.

Jan Satterfield, the Butler County Attorney, could not be reached for comment early Monday afternoon.

She has told The Eagle in the past that Adam's adoptive parents are suspects in an investigation that could lead to murder charges, based on an underlying crime of child abuse.

The Herrmans say they are innocent, claiming the boy was a frequent runaway.

Warner Eisenbise, the Wichita attorney representing Valerie Herrman, has said that it is possible that she could be charged with child abuse or not reporting Adam missing - but not murder.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1114644.html

what a sad story...wonder if they will ever find his body after all this time...

1/4/2010
Investigation continues into missing Towanda boy

TOWANDA, Kan. (AP) -- The investigation into what happened to an 11-year-old Towanda boy not seen since 1999 continues and charges are possible sometime this year, Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said.

Adam Herrman's adoptive parents say he ran away from their mobile home park in Towanda in 1999. But his absence was not reported until his older sister contacted authorities about her concerns in December 2008.

Investigators said they could find no records or indication that Adam was still alive.

The boy's parents told authorities they did not report the boy's disappearance because they feared they would lose custody of Adam and other children.

His disappearance became public when Butler County investigators began digging in the mobile home park looking for human remains. Searchers found no remains and Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy has consistently declined to say if any evidence was found.

Satterfield has said that the parents were suspects in the boy's disappearance. She said she expects to decide within a year whether to file charges or submit the case to a grand jury.

"There is no statute of limitations on murder," she said. "And for every year that passes, I think it only strengthens our case, especially given the extent of publicity.

"There's simply no trace of him anywhere. Time's our friend in bodiless cases. Another year's passed -- no Adam Herrman, no sight of Adam Herrman."

Investigators turned the case over to Satterfield last spring. She had hoped to present the case to a grand jury by last December, but said her office has been busy with three homicide cases in which charges have been filed.

Warner Eisenbise, who represents Adam's adoptive mother, Valerie Herrman, said, "My only comment is all that's been said is certainly conjecture and nothing more ... Common sense isn't sufficient to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

Laura Shaneyfelt, representing Adam's adoptive father, Doug Herrman, agreed.

"I think prosecutors should always be careful in bodiless cases and not jump to conclusions," she said. "Just because someone has disappeared does not mean they have been murdered."

The lawyers say the Herrmans continue to say they have committed no crimes in the case.

Valerie Herrman told authorities that Adam ran away in early May 1999 after she spanked him with a belt. Relatives said that Herrman explained Adam's absence by saying he had been returned to state custody.

Adam's biological father, Irvin Groeninger, said he is frustrated that the case continues to be unsolved. But he said he thinks authorities are doing what they can and charges will eventually be filed.

Asked whether he thinks his son could be alive, he said, "I feel he would have been heard from by now."

Satterfield said she expects to meet this month with child abuse experts to discuss the case. She said she has obtained a number of statements and sheriff's investigators have gathered extensive information.

"Too much has been invested in this case, professionally and personally, to just forget about it. I just think it is chilling when kids can disappear without a trace."
http://www.hdnews.net/apksstory/k1019-BC-KS-MissingBoy-Annive-1stLd-Writethru-01-04-0659

 ::MonkeyNoNo:: 

Parents of Adam Herrman charged with fraud

Last Update: 5:27 pm 

BUTLER COUNTY, Kansas – He vanished from Towanda more than a decade ago and now the adoptive parents of Adam Herrman have been arrested an charged for fraud.

Adam Herrman literally vanished back in 1999 and authorities say his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman, never reported him missing.

In fact, Adam’s disappearance wasn’t discovered until 2008. Now, his adoptive parents have been arrested and stand accused of continuing to accept money for Adam’s care.

The Butler County attorney has charged each of the parents with one count of theft for accepting more than $50,000 in government assistance for Adam’s care after he had gone missing.

The couple has maintained that Adam, who was 11 at the time, ran away from their Towanda home in May 1999 after Valerie hit him with a belt. But they never reported him missing or as a runaway.

Authorities learned about the case only after Adam’s adoptive sister told authorities. The Butler County Sheriff’s Department began digging in the mobile home park where the family had lived, searching for human remains. Those remains were never found.

Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield says the homicide investigation continues and that prosecution for murder could begin at any time.

Doug and Valerie Herrman have posted bond and are out of jail.
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Parents-of-Adam-Herrman-charged-with-fraud/w84ouBQDykmR88rE2pDSCg.cspx

Doug and Valerie Herrman get prison time  ::MonkeyGavel::

By Jessica Seibel
El Dorado Times
Posted Aug 01, 2011 @ 05:35 PM
Last update Aug 01, 2011 @ 05:39 PM

 ::snipping2::
Judge David Ricke sentenced Doug Herrman to nine months in prison and Valerie Herrman to seven months in prison, both to be followed by 12 months of probation, at a hearing Monday.

The Herrmans appeared in the district courtroom for sentencing after pleading guilty to felony theft charges on June 17.

Prior to giving the Herrmans their sentences, Ricke listened to Mike Brown and Chris Pate, lawyers for the defendants, explain that jail time should not be part of the sentences because only theft charges were involved in the case.

Pate also argued that prison should be reserved for people who pose a threat to society, not for people who are convicted of theft.

Pate also said the Herrmans are caregivers for their 22-year-old daughter who has special needs, and that prison time would jeopardize her care.

Carrol Christian of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services disagreed with Brown and Pate.

"We would request the Herrmans receive the maximum penalty," he said.

In explaining the sentence he handed down, Ricke called Doug and Valerie Herrman callous and noted they were receiving a harsher penalty than they would have if the case had been solely about theft.

"The court finds that this case is about much more," said Ricke. "The failure to report a child who has disappeared is undeniably a significant part of this case."
 ::snipping2::

http://www.eldoradotimes.com/highlights/x1158632031/Doug-and-Valerie-Herrman-get-prison-time  (http://www.eldoradotimes.com/highlights/x1158632031/Doug-and-Valerie-Herrman-get-prison-time)
(http://media.kansas.com/smedia/2009/12/30/15/composite.slideshow_main.prod_affiliate.80.jpg)