Nebraska Schade Family Missing 3/20/09 (Matt, Rowena, Devon & Sean) Kids safe/parents in custody

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Nebraska Family Missing Since 3/20/09: Missing Persons Alert for Matt Schade, his wife Rowena and their two children Devon & Sean



http://missingexploited.com/2009/04/05/nebraska-family-missing-since-32009-missing-persons-alert-for-matt-schade-his-wife-rowena-and-their-two-children-devon-sean/

The Schade family, Matt, Rowena, Devon, 11, and Sean, 8 are missing and have not been seen since March 20, 2009. The family left their home in Creighton, Nebraska in a black Ford Taurus, license plate number 12-G997, under what the sheriff says is allegations of possible family violence.

Updates in post ...

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Schade Legal Trouble

http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/42504167.html

KSFY Action News has learned that Knox County Sheriff Jim Janecek is urging the relatives of both Matt and Rowena Schade to have the couple contact authorities as soon as possible to resolve the confusion and concern surrounding their disappearance.

We also learned that while Matt Schade has a criminal record for a 2006 burglary, so does Rowena Scahde, also for a 2006 burglary.

Knox County authorities are not saying if the couple was convicted for the same crime or two different incidents.

We also know neither Matt nor Rowena contacted their probation officers before leaving their home in Creighton, Nebraska on March 20th, the last time they were seen.

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Grandfather Says Missing Nebraska Family Called Home, Just Wants to Be Left Alone
Thursday, April 02, 2009

Ground crews searching in South Dakota for a Nebraska man who vanished with is family nearly two weeks ago have scaled down their efforts after he called his father saying they are all doing well and want to be left alone.

Matthew Schade's father told the The Knox County Sheriff's Office that he spoke with his son, his daughter-in-law, Rowena Schade, and their children, Devon, 11, and Sean, 8, on Thursday.

He said they were doing well and were well prepared to wait out the next storm coming through the Black Hills.

The family's car was found in the Black Hills on Tuesday prompting authorities to search for the family in rugged terrain near Pactola Reservoir and the village of Silver City.

They were last seen March 20 at their home 400 miles away in Creighton, Neb., the day each was interviewed by a Knox County deputy sheriff on allegations of abuse, according to statements from Nebraska and South Dakota law enforcement agencies.

The deputy "made an offer of help and counseling. No arrests were made and no injuries were observed," Knox County Sheriff Jim Janecek said in a release. He did not comment further.

Matthew Schade, 26, is on probation in Nebraska for burglary, and an arrest warrant was issued after he failed to notify a probation officer of his whereabouts, the statement said. Rowena Schade, 29, was also on probation but authorities did say why.

Investigators said the Schades, who spent their honeymoon in the Black Hills, had talked about relocating. It also appeared they left the house in a hurry and recently purchased more than $1,000 worth of "camping survival type gear" that was missing.

Matthew Schade had also attended a survival camp through his church six years in a row in the search area and "expressed he would like to live like a hermit in the mountains," wrote Maj. Brian Mueller of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office in South Dakota.

A ground and air search had resumed Thursday and focused on the numerous abandoned mines, cabins and other buildings in the isolated Pactola Reservoir area, as well as meadows and creek beds that would serve well as a camp, Mueller told The Associated Press.

After hearing about the phone call, ground search crews scaled down the search operations until the situation can be further assessed.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512197,00.html

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04/03/2009 10:41 AM

SD Officials Call Off Search For Family
Pennington County officials have called off the search for the missing Schade family in the Black Hills after getting new details from Nebraska authorities.

The Knox County, Nebraska, Sheriff's Office received information that the stolen Silver City brush truck was abandoned in Antelope County, Nebraska.

Authorities in that area are actively searching for the stolen truck. The Knox County Sheriff's Office believes the Schade family used the truck to return to the Knox County area.

Officials believe the Shade family is no longer in the Black Hills area and all search efforts in the Black Hills have been canceled at this time.

http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,82835

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Published Friday April 3, 2009
Missing Nebraska family may have returned; stolen truck found

Authorities have located the stolen pickup truck that a northeast Nebraska family is believed to have used to return to the state after fleeing amid allegations of abuse.

The truck was found in Antelope County, about 35 miles from Knox County seat. The fire truck, stolen from a fire department in Pennington County, S.D., was found about 11:30 a.m., according to authorities.

Missing are Matthew and Rowena Schade and her two children, Devon, 11, (left) and Sean, 8, whom Matthew had adopted.A search of the Black Hills for the Schade family has been cancelled as a result, according to the Pennington County Sheriff's Office.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has issued a call for Matthew and Rowena Schade to call the Sheriff’s Office so that the situation can be resolved.

The missing family was thought to be hiding in hiding in the rugged Black Hills of South Dakota after hastily leaving home amid allegations of child abuse, authorities say. They have been gone about two weeks.

On Thursday, as news of their flight flashed across the Internet and local and national news shows, they called a relative to say they are alive and want to be left alone, according to Maj. Brian Mueller of the Pennington County, S.D., Sheriff's Office.

Matthew Schade, his wife, Rowena, and her two children, Devon, 11, and Sean, 8, whom Matthew adopted, appeared to have taken precious few articles of clothing when they left their home, authorities say. However, they packed up more than $1,000 in camping gear.

They were known to have driven at least the 400 miles from their Creighton, Neb., home to the Silver City, S.D., area. Their car was found at a trailhead near that small village. A search for them remains under way.

Matthew Schade's father told authorities that he spoke to each family member at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Mueller said.

"They said they're OK, to leave them alone and to quit looking for them," Mueller said he was told.

Schade told his father that the family was well-prepared to wait out a storm forecast to go through the Black Hills.

Investigators have been trying to determine if Rowena Schade and the children left home willingly.

Mueller said his office also is investigating the theft of a pickup truck owned by the Silver City Fire Department and another burglary that occurred in the area in recent weeks. The pickup was taken from near Pactola Reservoir, a popular recreational lake outside of Rapid City, S.D., where the Schade family's snow-covered black Taurus was found Tuesday.

It is not known whether the truck's theft and the recent burglary are related to the family's disappearance, he said.

Rowena Schade's mother, Sandy Epstein, told The World-Herald shortly after noon Thursday that she had been calling her daughter's cell phone but had been unable to get through.

Authorities have no indication that Epstein has been contacted by her daughter.

Matthew, 26, and Rowena Schade, 29, may have been under tremendous stress.

On March 20, the day they disappeared, Knox County, Neb., sheriff's deputies interviewed the parents and two children about allegations of abuse.

Also, unless a judge steps in to waive their jail time, court records indicate that both parents faced the possibility of jail sentences in the coming weeks for a burglary they committed before getting married.

Epstein said she saw her daughter on the day she disappeared. Rowena had stopped by Epstein's home and talked with her mom for three or four hours before going to her brother's home to wish him a happy birthday and then heading into an insurance sales office where she worked.

There was no indication, Epstein said, that the family was about to leave town.

"We're all just rather shocked," she said. "I just want them to be safe."

The couple had honeymooned in the Pactola Reservoir area, and for six summers while he was growing up, Matthew had done primitive camping in the area with a church group.

Court documents filed March 24 by the Knox County Sheriff's Office indicate that Rowena had told family members that her husband was abusive and controlling and that she wanted to leave. Matthew Schade had taken the children out of school in January and had been home-schooling them. He also had talked of "taking the whole family and live off the land," according to the records.

Knox County Sheriff Jim Janecek said in a statement that his office had interviewed the family on March 19 and 20. There were no signs of injuries, according to a statement. The family was offered counseling and other help.

Rowena and Matthew Schade married about three years ago. They were convicted of burglarizing Mitch's Food Center in Plainview, Neb., in 2004.

Mitch Wragge, owner of the store, said Matthew Schade had worked for him as a teenager and then worked there full time after graduating from Plainview High School.

"He was always polite, and he was a good kid," Wragge said Thursday. "He was just a likable, good guy."

Matthew left on good terms in search of better-paying work.

Wragge said it was "very disappointing" to learn that Schade had burglarized his store sometime after he quit working there. Rowena's role in the burglary isn't made clear in court documents, though Wragge said she drove the getaway vehicle.

Schade had broken into the store late at night, trying to open the store's safe, but he cut himself on a glass door and did not get any money, the owner said. After pleading guilty, Schade wrote his former boss an apology letter and paid about $600 in restitution for damaging the door, Wragge said.

Schade's probation was to end Monday, with the possibility of jail time beginning then, court records indicate. His wife's probation was scheduled to end May 31.

The couple had overcome some problems to establish a normal family life, said the Rev. Casey Nelson of Faith Hope Love Fellowship Church in Creighton. The Schades married in his church, and he counseled them before their wedding.

They attended church regularly for about two years, he said, but eventually stopped coming.

He said he worked so closely with them that he considers them almost like his own children.

Nelson said he thought that both parents were employed.

A neighbor, who spoke on condition that his name not be used, said the Schades seemed to be happy in their rental home outside of Creighton.

He said he was surprised at their sudden departure because they'd been building the children hutches for rabbits. He often saw the children riding their bikes along the country road, he said, and the family liked to go on motorcycle rides together in the evenings.

While authorities described Matthew Schade as being prone to mood swings, his mother-in-law said her grandchildren doted on Matthew.

"The kids loved him," she said. "They loved him."

After the Schades disappeared, the Knox County Sheriff's Office issued a warrant for Schade, charging him with failure to report a change of address and failure to report to his probation officer. No such warrant appears to have been issued against Rowena Schade.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10601308

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Nebraska Family Remain "Persons of Interest" In Burglaries

Created: 4/4/2009 6:47:14 AM

A Nebraska couple fled the state with their children out of fear that social services workers would take the kids away from them.

Authorities say that's the reason Rowena Schade gave her mother Friday during a phone call.

Matthew and Rowena Schade and their children, ages 8 and 11,have not been seen since March 20, when a Knox County deputysheriff interviewed them in their Creighton home about allegationsof abuse.

Rowena Schade told her mother that the family returned from theBlack Hills area of South Dakota and retrieved one of theirvehicles.

According to a Knox County Sheriff's Office, Rowena Schade toldSandra Epstein that they had "another plan" and that if thingsdidn't work out, they would go "where no one would ever findthem."

The Pennington County Sheriff's Office says Matthew and Rowena remain "persons of interest" in burglaries in the Silver City area.

http://www.kotaradio.com/news.asp?eid=5002&ID=2715

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Serenity returns, but search questions linger
Silver City: Town fire rig found in Nebraska, family still in hiding.

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff | Friday, April 03, 2009

SILVER CITY -- Todd Tobin has taken some unusual safety precautions the last few nights.

He actually locked his doors.

Such citified security measures tend to get overlooked in this secluded mountain town of 26 year-round residents on Rapid Creek, just upstream from Pactola Reservoir. That was before the strange tracks in the snow, the abandoned car, the stolen fire truck and the two-state search for a missing family that suddenly centered on Silver City.

And the tiny, close-knit community known for its post-card scenery and comfortable calm found itself on edge.

"Everybody's been locking their doors," Tobin said Friday afternoon from his home on a snowy Main Street without stores. "It has created an air of insecurity in our secure little town."

For the previous two days, it brought a storm of attention to a community that rarely sees the spotlight, as reporters showed up and law enforcement officers and search-and-rescue experts scoured the town and rugged forest and canyons nearby in the hunt for Matthew Schade and his family.

Schade, 26, his wife, Rowena, 29, daughter Devon, 11, and son Sean, 8, went missing almost two weeks earlier from their home near Creighton, Neb., shortly after being interviewed about child abuse. Because they had camped in the Pactola area before, local authorities were asked to check the Silver City area. Officers found the family's black Taurus nearby on Tuesday and intensified the hunt on Wednesday.

And the town was abuzz with questions and concerns.

"It was the most excitement we've had around here in a long time," said 73-year-old John Clark, who retired 14 years ago to find solitude with his wife, Marian, in a family cabin built in 1935. "I guess it was kind of a break from the blizzards."

Clark was frustrated that law enforcement officers didn't provide more information sooner about the search and any potential danger to the community.

"They don't tell you nothing," Clark said. "That guy must have spent a day in town. There's footprints all around there, and houses that were broken into. And, of course, we lost a fire truck, too."

The brush truck belonging to the volunteer fire department was in the garage on Tuesday and gone Wednesday, Clark said. Silver City residents learned Friday morning that the truck had been found in Antelope County, Neb.

Authorities there believe the Schades took the truck and drove back to Nebraska, left it and took off in another vehicle that they own. Matthew Schade could face charges for not reporting to his parole officer before leaving Nebraska.

Maj. Brian Mueller of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office said Friday that he understands the frustration residents might have felt in not knowing exactly what authorities were doing early on. But when officers began the search near Pactola they were primarily trying to make sure the family, especially the children, were safe.

"We really weren't sure what we had when we received this call," Mueller said. "Initially, we were asked to look for their car and do more of a welfare check. Our main concern with weather coming in and children involved was to make sure they were safe."

Authorities haven't received any reports from people who saw the Schades in the Silver City area. They got one report from someone who "might have seen a car with Nebraska plates driving around in the area a couple of weeks earlier," Mueller said.

Mueller confirmed there were footprints in the snow around some homes and outbuildings, as well as the fire station. Officers also are investigating another burglary report in Silver City, he said.

"And we've encouraged anyone who has had property tampered with or homes or building broken into, or anything suspicious, to contact us," he said.

Mueller also recommended that Silver City residents continue to lock their homes and cars, despite the generally safe nature of their community.

Tobin admits that's good advice and complimented authorities on their handling of the search. He said he and his wife, Judy, and most residents were uneasy about the search, but especially worried about the Schade children.

"We were most concerned for the family, and that the children were safe," he said.

The Shades contacted a family member Thursday to say they were well. But their whereabouts remained unknown Friday. Mueller said it's almost certain they won't come back to Silver City.

Which is just fine with Dave Myers, a 53-year-old disabled veteran who has lived in Silver City for 26 years. He was on a walk near his home Friday afternoon in a gentle snow that seemed to inspire chatter from juncos and chickadees in nearby pine trees.

It was clear the town was getting back to normal.

"This is the best place on earth," Myers said. "It's just totally quiet."
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2009/04/03/news/top/doc49d6c486e8cf4411847142.txt

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Missing Neb. family turns up; parents in custody
Apr 6th, 2009
OMAHA, Neb. -- A couple on probation for burglary who vanished with their children after being questioned about abuse allegations turned themselves in to authorities Monday, a sheriff said.

County Sheriff Jim Janecek said he met with Matthew and Rowena Schade and their children.

Matthew Schade was arrested on a warrant for a probation violation, authorities said in a news release. His wife was being held by order of the Nebraska Department of Probation, it said. It did not specify a reason.

The release did not address the condition of the two children, ages 8 and 11. State health officials plan to meet with them before a determination is made concerning their placement.

The children, ages 11 and 8, will be placed after state officials talk to them.

The family disappeared March 20 after they were interviewed in their Creighton home about allegations of abuse.

A search extended to remote areas of South Dakota before winding back to Nebraska last week.

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2009/04/06/D97D4FS80_missing_nebraska_family/

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Missing Nebraska children say days on run were 'like camping trip'

April 7, 2009 06:55 AM EDT
CREIGHTON, Neb. (KTIV) - The children of the missing Northeast Nebraska couple now say they thought they were on a camping trip.

Authorities also say the kids were more worried about having to leave their baked potatoes at the campsite than anything else.

Cuffed and booked, 26-year old Matt Schade and his 29-year old wife, Rowena Schade look different than their original "Missing Persons" photograph issued to the press last week.  On March 20th, Knox County Sheriff's department investigated allegations of abuse at the Schade family home in Creighton, Nebraska.  The sheriff's department determined nothing more needed to be done.  Allegedly scared their children 11 and 8 years old would be taken by social services, Matthew and Rowena left with their children, heading to the Black Hills.

Their Ford Taurus turned up covered in fresh snow in the area.  An all out search began by the Pennington County Sheriff's Department and the South Dakota State Patrol.  But, the Schade's didn't want to be found.  Now, they will likely have to pay for that search.

"Once we get that cost figured, we'll make a determination at that time whether we're going to bring possible civil action or ask for restitution on some type of criminal charges we may file at a later date," Maj. Brian Mueller.

Pennington County authorities say the Schades could be connected to several burglaries, last week, including a stolen fire truck. Back in Nebraska, the Knox County sheriff says he won't charge the cost of his search back to the Schades. But Matt and Rowena Schade could face jail time.  They have been booked for violation of probation following a 2006 burglary in Plainview, in Pierce County.  Their children are with family members, right now.

Bond for Rowena Schade has been set at 10-thousand dollars.

Matt Schade has been transferred to Antelope County on an arrest warrant.

But, the Antelope County Sheriff says Matt Schade will be transferred to Pierce County, tonight, on the 2006 warrant.

A court date in Pierce County has been set for April 14th.

http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp?s=10146698