Owners of Christian boys boarding school in Missouri arrested, charged with kidnapping

The owners of a Christian boys boarding school in Missouri were charged with first-degree kidnapping following an investigation, authorities said.

Wayne County Sheriff Dean Finch announced that deputies arrested Larry Musgraves Jr., 57, on Friday evening on the ABM Ministries Lighthouse Christian Academy campus in Piedmont, Missouri, a small town roughly 130 miles south of St. Louis.

His wife, Carmen Musgraves, 64, was arrested when she went to the jail to check on her husband at around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday. Both are being held without bond.

ABM Ministries Lighthouse Christian Academy is a private Christian boarding school for boys ages 10 to 13. According to its website, the 25,000-square-foot campus is located on 25 acres tucked away in the Ozarks. The school has around 40 students enrolled each year.

In a statement, Finch said the sheriff's department began an investigation months ago after a former student contacted them. Finch traveled to Alabama to interview the former student, then began interviewing other former students, then current students.

He added that the office has also received several calls of students running away from the facility.

Finch said the sheriff's office “anticipates more charges as the investigation continues, with more alleged victims coming forward."

The arrests come nearly two weeks after the Kansas City Star published a report detailing how several boys had run away from the school since early January.

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Multiple runaways in recent months

In one instance reported by the Kansas City Star, a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old had run away from the facility, and walked for miles without coats in the cold temperature before flagging down a driver for help.

“They were screaming, hands up in the air, trying to get me to stop,” Cierra Osborn, 20, the woman whose car the boys flagged down on Jan. 28, told the Star.

The older boy told Osborn: “Ma’am, we just need you to call 911.”

Osborn told the outlet that the boys were "terrified" and spoke of staff hitting and berating them for things like not getting their chores done quickly.

According to the Star, the Missouri Highway Patrol assisted Wayne County authorities several times since Jan. 13 as several boys were reported missing.

“I don’t remember seeing this many runaways (from ABM Ministries) so close together,” Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott, a public information officer for the patrol in the area told the outlet.

In his statement, Finch acknowledged growing community concern over the recent spike in runaways and asked for the public to be patient and "rest assured that all crimes are and will continue to be investigated.

“When it comes to children, Sheriff Finch will leave no stone unturned until all victims are interviewed. We know the citizens are concerned as well that nothing was being done, however we can’t disclose what we are doing on cases,” Finch wrote in the news release.

ABM Ministries did not respond to USA TODAY's call for comment.

Sarah Al-Arshani covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at salarshani@gannett.com.