Abducted Amish girls in New York have turned up safe

A man and woman in upstate New York were arrested yesterday after having kidnapped two young Amish sisters from their family’s roadside farm stand. The couple, Stephen Howells and Nicole Vaisey, has been charged with intent to physically and sexually abuse the Amish sisters.

The sisters, aged 7 and 12, vanished from their family’s farm in Oswegatchie on Wednesday night, sparking a massive search in the farming community of around 4,000 people near the Canadian border in a hunt that was hampered by a lack of photos of the girls for authorities to circulate.

The Amish tend to avoid modern technology such as cameras, and the family of the sisters had to work with a sketch artist who spoke their language, a dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch, in order to produce a sketch of the eldest daughter.

Fortunately, the two sisters turned up safe, and allegedly unharmed, at the door of a house nearly 15 miles away from where they were abducted. St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain declined to discuss a motive for the abduction or provide any other specifics about the suspects, but she did say that the information provided by the girls helped lead to police to the home of their abductors, about 13 miles from where the girls live.

“One thing that comes from this is that people learn this can happen in a small town,” the prosecutor said. “I think the public will take precautions, and that’s the sad thing.”

Read more about the story at The New York Times.