Amish Home Burned To The Ground In Missouri Vandalism Case – Witness Thought Arson Talk Was A Bluff. 6 People Now Charged (UPDATED)
A second suspect has been jailed in the Lawrence County, Missouri vandalism case targeting Amish property. When we first looked at this frankly wild-sounding story Friday, it wasn’t then known if a house that had been burnt down was Amish-owned or not.
But now a witness has identified it as such. And a man has been jailed in connection with that crime – one of 6 people now charged in the case. Austin Boggs, 27, of Sarcoxie, Missouri, was booked into the Lawrence County Jail on November 7 and is being held without bond, as reported by KZRG.
He faces five charges: second-degree arson, second-degree burglary, first-degree property damage, first-degree harassment, and first-degree trespassing.
Previously only one person – a 35-year-old woman named Rachel Lea Klemp – had been charged in the case. The remaining four have not yet been arrested, but that might be coming soon.
Up To No Good One Night In July
The case goes back to the night of July 17-July 18, when a group allegedly stole an Amish buggy, dragged it behind a side-by-side utility vehicle, slashed and smashed it, attempted to set it on fire, and then pushed it off a bridge into a creek.
You’d think that might be the work of unruly teenagers, but two have been confirmed in their 20s and 30s, with a third of the group (Klemp’s husband) likely in that age range as well.
Then it sounds like they were spotted by chance, by a Missouri Department of Conservation agent, who came upon people trying to pull the buggy out of the water. Yea, that would get my attention too. Amish buggies usually don’t find themselves in creeks, and not with a bunch of non-Amish people trying to extract them from said creek.
That’s what kicked off this investigation, which is landing hard on these folks now, about four months later. Here’s a visual of the bridge where they allegedly pushed the buggy into the water:
As we covered in Friday’s post, investigators also described a side-by-side driven through a cornfield, causing about $2,500 worth of damage, a Roman candle fired at a pickup truck, a near-miss collision with an ATV, and an accidental voicemail with two men discussing stealing an Amish buggy.
The first person charged, Klemp, faces three felonies and a misdemeanor trespassing count. She is accused of spray-painting graffiti on Amish property, but is not charged with stealing the buggy or with the fire.
Lawrence County has two Amish communities. The larger is the Verona settlement, with an estimated 435 Amish residents. The reports do not say which community the victims belong to.
Burned-Down Amish Home: What The Witness Told Investigators
The new account comes from a probable cause statement describing what a witness, Justin Sullivan, told investigators. According to KZRG:
Sullivan told investigators that Austin and Levi Boggs later discussed burning an Amish house.
According to the statement, Sullivan picked up Austin Boggs along a county road and drove him back toward the area. Austin then allegedly entered a side-by-side driven by Levi Boggs, and the two headed toward the Amish property.
Sullivan said he initially believed the two were bluffing about burning the house.
The following day, he discovered the residence had burned to the ground.
Sullivan also told investigators that Austin Boggs was among the six people who walked through the woods to an Amish property and vandalized it.
He alleges Austin Boggs helped break windows and smash porch ceiling fans, and poured glue onto concrete footings near the house. We heard about those acts in the prior post, but not about who allegedly did them.
The fire also destroyed a second building – it’s unclear from any of the reporting what that second structure was – and a zero-turn mower. According to KY3’s account of the court records, the vandalized Amish home and the one that burned to the ground are the same house.
Six Charged, Four Not Yet Named
KY3 reports that six people now face charges, though only two of the cases are public. Klemp’s husband has already been named in prior reporting, but he is not one of the two named so far.
The other four are not named because of a recent change in Missouri law. As KY3 explains, cases with pending warrants no longer show up on Case.net, the state’s online court records system, until the person is arrested.
KY3 adds one more detail not in earlier reports: a skid loader was stolen and driven into a garden, destroying it. Given the grab-bag of senseless vandalism documented in the earlier reports, it’s not too surprising to see even more stupid destruction added to the long list attributed to this group of “adults”. Fortunately no one was killed or hurt, as far as we know.
The prosecutor’s office says motive and background are still under investigation. I speculated in the prior post that basic dumb bigotry against the Amish – not an uncommon phenomenon in the least – may be at work here. Other than that, why are 20-something and 30-something people doing all these dumb, juvenile, destructive things? A quick fix for boredom? I guess that’s a possibility too.
I’ll update this story as we learn more, which I expect we’ll do as more arrests are made.
Update (November 12): “A Disagreement” With An Amish Person
The Lawrence County Record has more from the probable cause statement in Rachel Klemp’s case, including what looks like a motive for the fire. According to their reporting:
Witness 2 allegedly admitted in an interview with authorities that Klemp was among the group when the crimes were committed.
The witness told law enforcement that they were not present when the house was set alight, but Boggs stated either “I should have torched the house” or “I want to torch a house.”
Justin Sullivan told law enforcement that Boggs had a disagreement with a member of the Amish community and wanted to retaliate, mentioning that they should go burn the Amish house.
So at least where the fire is concerned, this may have been about a grudge against an Amish individual, rather than a random spree aimed at the Amish in general. Though, general anti-Amish sentiment may have factored in; I’m not going to try to discern what was in people’s heads right now beyond what they state on the record.
The Record names Levi Boggs (not Austin) among the group, so that would seem to be the Boggs meant here, although it’s Austin Boggs who’s been charged with arson. I have seen nothing on what the disagreement was about.
They also report that the group shot a Roman candle at the buggy once it was in the water. And it says the accidental voicemail mentioned earlier, in which Levi Boggs and Jimmie Huff discuss stealing a buggy, was a call between Huff and a member of the Amish community.
Hang um.
Off the streets
I hope the judge on their case puts himself in the shoes of the Amish who were affected, and thinks what it would be like to have these people ever back on the streets again.
Why?
I look at the names of the perpetrators and I think X Amish or X Mennonite? Revenge instead of senseless gross vandalism. I hope the book is thrown at them but I know that the victims have already forgiven them.