The Amish & Crime

Following up on the recent hit-and-run buggy crash in Clarke County, Iowa, a local station spoke with neighbors of the young man killed in the wreck. One of them provided more details on what happened, and a bit about the young man, Elmer Borntrager. Also, it sounds like there is good news, for lack of a better description: the suspect’s vehicle has been located. However,…

An 19-year-old Amish man has been charged with DUI following a collision involving a motor vehicle. This comes to us from the New Wilmington, Pennsylvania Amish community – no stranger to DUI charges among its buggy drivers (more on that below). As far as this incident, here’s more from New Castle News: An Amish buggy driver involved in an accident reportedly found himself in a…

Strange to be doing a second Amish kidnapping story in a row, but here we are. News broke today that police have arrested the suspected kidnapper of an Amish boy in Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Back in September we learned that a man had grabbed a 9-year-old Amish boy while his back was turned at a farm stand, then put him in his vehicle and drove…

The shocking story of an “Amish wannabe” living in the Arthur, Illinois community who attacked and tried to kidnap a 16-year-old Amish girl has come to a conclusion of sorts. In the February 2025 incident – which happened in the early morning at a local coffee shop – Lester M. Raymind, 21, first assaulted, and then tried to carry away the girl. He was stopped by…

A man whom the Amish trusted – and paid – to drive them places was actually working against them. While he operated as an Amish taxi driver, his side occupation was allegedly helping criminals target some of those very same Amish homes for burglary. That’s according to new reports and allegations about a fourth man arrested in connection with the Geauga County, Ohio home invasion and assault case. From…

Samantha Jo Petersen’s sentence was delivered earlier today. Samantha pleaded guilty in July for her role in a September 2023 crash which killed two Amish girls in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Samantha was driving an SUV which rear-ended the buggy the girls were traveling in along with two other siblings. Irma Miller (11) and Wilma Miller (7) lost their lives that morning, while on their daily…

Looks like they got the rest of them. At yesterday’s press conference on the brutal home invasion and assault of an Amish man and his eight-year-old son, we learned that one of three suspects – a man named Bradford James Hosler – had been arrested. Geauga County, Ohio Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand stated then that “I feel very confident that within the next couple days the…

In a crime described as “appalling”, an Amish man and his son were assaulted by three assailants last Thursday, and the home robbed. The perpetrators threatened to kill the victims, and even attempted to abduct the eight-year-old boy. This happened in Middlefield Township in the Geauga County, Ohio Amish settlement. A blurb on this incident was released earlier today. The Geauga County Sheriff’s Department just…

This is one of the more gut-wrenching incidents you’ll come across leading to a young Amish person’s death. It happened last December. A 29-year-old Vicksburg, Michigan man drove his pickup into a group of Amish children who were headed to the local schoolhouse. It was said he “didn’t see the children.” From WZZM 13: Investigators say a group of four kids were riding their bikes…