LEXINGTON, Mo. -- For the first time, someone is speaking out in defense of the accused members of the Mohler family.
Five members of the family are facing charges in a disturbing case involving allegations of rape, incest and murder.
More than a dozen relatives of the accused men were in the Lafayette County, Mo., courtroom Tuesday for a hearing.
Most would not speak with reporters afterward, but Don Gamble of Independence did.
Gamble was first a friend of Burrell Mohler, Sr., and then became a relative when he married a sister of Mohler’s wife.
That wife, Alice, died in 1991. That was six years after some of the rapes started, according to the newest allegations.
“If these things had happened when Alice was alive, he would have stopped it. He was very religious. I can’t believe that any of this was going on while she was alive,” said Gamble.
Gamble says he doesn’t believe the charges. He says he has an idea about how the accusations began but he did not want to share that information.
Investigators seized multiple computers from multiple locations on Tuesday. The computers are being analyzed at a lab, where investigators are searching them for child porn and any other evidence relevant to the case.
The Lafayette County sheriff says the Rural Major Case Squad, which has been conducting the Mohler investigation, will disband on Wednesday. That sends the case back to local investigators.
