How Could You? Hall of Shame-Adam Hermann case UPDATED-Missing Child
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From El Dorado, Kansas, adoptive parents Doug and Valerie Herrman pled not guilty on Tuesday February 22, 2011 “to felony charges that they fraudulently collected adoption subsidies long after their 11-year-old son disappeared in 1999.
Doug and Valerie Herrman, of Derby, are accused of collecting $52,800 in state adoption subsidies from May 1999 to July 2005 while falsely claiming Adam Herrman as a dependent. ”
Adam was 11 years old when he went missing. He still remains missing.
“The boy disappeared in 1999 from a mobile home park in Towanda, 25 miles northeast of Wichita. Authorities learned about his disappearance in December 2008 after his older, adoptive sister voiced concerns about him.
The Herrmans adopted Adam when he was 2 1/2 years old, and he had been in foster care before that. The boy was being homeschooled at the time of his disappearance.”
[Daily Journal 2/22/11 by Roxanna Hegeman]
Adam was reported as missing in December 2008 to the “Sedgwick County, Kansas Exploited and Missing Childrens’ Unit .”
[True Crime Report 1/5/09 by Steve Huff]
First degree felony murder charges were to be filed in September 23, 2010.Unfortunately, that does not appear to have happened. The case is still open and active.
Doug and Valerie Herrman Make First Court Appearance
[KWCH 7/30/10 by Cliff Judy]
Update: “On June 21, Adam’s adoptive parents, Valerie and Doug Herrman, will go on trial in Butler County District Court in El Dorado. Each faces a felony theft charge alleging that they collected an adoption subsidy for Adam’s care during some of the years after he disappeared.
Even though the trial will draw news coverage, it is Adam’s disappearance that has drawn the national attention.
It is his disappearance that has the new sheriff saying he is still determined to find the boy’s remains and hold someone accountable.
There has been no trace of Adam since 1999, when he vanished at age 11 from a Towanda mobile home park where he lived with his adoptive family. Relatives said Valerie Herrman told them that Adam, who was being home-schooled, had been returned to state custody.
Authorities didn’t learn of his disappearance until late 2008, only after his adoptive sister came forward, expressing concerns about him. The discovery that he had been missing prompted investigators to dig for his remains in the mobile home park and to probe along the nearby Whitewater River in early 2009.
After the case became public, close relatives of Valerie Herrman accused her of abusing the boy. She denied their allegations.
She told The Eagle that Adam ran away after she spanked him and that she and her husband didn’t report him missing because they feared losing custody of their other children.
In 2009, the prosecutor at the time, Jan Satterfield, said the Herrmans were suspects in his disappearance. Satterfield, who has since been elected to a judgeship, also had said the investigation was being treated as a potential murder case. Since then, no such charges have been filed.”
“The trial, scheduled for three days beginning June 21, will focus on the question of whether the Herrmans engaged in a scheme to continue to receive adoption subsidies for Adam.
Amended charges filed by Satterfield allege that the Herrmans accepted $15,488 from November 2003 until July 8, 2005.
The original felony theft charges accused the couple of collecting $52,800 between May 1, 1999, and July 8, 2005.
The Herrmans, now in their mid-50s, have moved to Oklahoma, according to court documents.
They have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.
Asked why the charges were amended — involving a shorter time frame and less money — Devinney said the decision was based on the strongest evidence available.
The Herrmans waived their right to a preliminary hearing, so there has been no public preview of the state’s evidence.”
Adoptive parents of missing boy Adam Herrman to go to trial in theft case
[The Wichita Eagle 6/13/11 by Tim Potter]
A January 2009 article gives a timeline of events.
“June 8, 1987: Adam is born in Wichita with the name Irvin Groeninger III. He becomes a foster child of Doug and Valerie Herrman, and his adoption is finalized in 1993. His new name is Adam Joseph Herrman. The Herrmans also adopt two of Adam’s younger siblings.
1990 or 1991: The Herrmans lose their foster care license after an investigation, which they declined to discuss in detail during a recent Eagle interview.
August 1996: Adam is enrolled in the Derby school district as a fourth-grader at Pleasantview Elementary. Records show his previous schools were St. Mary’s, a Derby Catholic school, and El Paso Elementary, a Derby public school.
Nov. 26, 1996: Derby police receive and investigate a report of suspected abuse of Adam at his Derby home, in the 900 block of North Westview.
The brief, public portion of the police report lists it as a child-in-need-of-care case. Derby police Lt. Tim Brant said in an e-mail about the case that “it was investigated by our detective and SRS. The matter was referred for counseling through SRS.”
SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce said SRS knows of one case of suspected abuse of Adam in 1996. “It was investigated and found to be unsubstantiated,” she said.
Ponce said she could also confirm Valerie Herrman’s statement in the Eagle interview that Adam spent two days at the Wichita Children’s Home. Valerie Herrman said Adam spent the two days at the Children’s Home, then was returned home, after she spanked him with a belt. She said a psychological counselor saw bruises and called police. Doug Herrman said in the interview that they were told that Adam could not be disciplined with a belt.
“I don’t think they felt he was in any danger,” Doug Herrman said.
Jan. 9, 1998: Derby police receive a report, apparently from Adam’s school, Pleasantview, of suspected abuse.
The report says the possible abuse occurred days earlier, on Christmas Day 1997 at Adam’s home in Derby, in the 300 block of South Willow.
Derby police classified it as a miscellaneous report because an investigation found that no crime occurred, Brant said.
“The investigation revealed the injuries occurred while the child was engaged in sporting activity with siblings,” Brant said in the e-mail.
Asked by The Eagle whether she could recall the incident, Valerie Herrman said: “They were out playing football… and he had just some bruises on his arms.”
Jan. 14, 1998: Adam runs away, according to Derby police.
He “returned on his own within two hours of the report and no further action was taken,” Brant said.
Valerie Herrman said that Adam ran away a total of six to eight times, to get attention. Usually, it was for an hour or two, “and we always found him,” she said.
February 1998: Adam withdraws from Pleasantview while in the fifth grade. The family told the district it was moving, records show.
Around the same time, the Herrmans moved to a Towanda mobile home park, Valerie Herrman said.
She was the park manager.
She said she might be mistaken but thought that Adam had gone to public school for a short time in Towanda. But the Circle school district, which includes Towanda, said it has no record of him being enrolled.
For most of the family’s time in Towanda, Adam was home-schooled, Valerie Herman said. She said he disliked regular school and preferred the one-on-one attention he received from her. Home-schooling also was a better fit for him because he had psychological problems, she said. His younger siblings, meanwhile, attended public school.
First week of May 1999: Adam disappears from his Towanda home. Valerie Herrman said she thinks it was on the weekend.
The 11-year-old ran away after Valerie Herrman spanked him with a belt, she said in the Eagle interview. He didn’t return and her husband searched for him, they said in the interview.
They said they didn’t report him as a runaway because they feared the spanking would lead to him and his two younger siblings being removed from their home.
Around Thanksgiving 2008: The Herrmans’ biological daughter, Crystal, calls SRS in the hopes of learning something about Adam.
She learns from SRS that records show Adam was with the Herrmans until 2005, which contradicts what her parents had told the family for years: that Adam went back to state custody in 1999. She shares this with SRS and voices her allegations that Adam had been abused by her mother, Valerie Herrman.
Crystal’s contact with SRS uncovers the fact that Adam disappeared in 1999 and triggers a law enforcement investigation, led by the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, of what happened to him.
Dec. 15, 2008: Investigators search the Herrmans’ current home in Derby and take a computer, pictures of Adam and medical and psychological reports about him, among other items.
Dec. 31, 2008: Investigators search the Towanda mobile home park where Adam was last seen.
Jan. 3, 2009: Adam’s biological parents, now living out of state, and his biological sister tell The Eagle that investigators are seeking samples of their DNA — to match it with any possible evidence of Adam they might find. The biological parents and sisters say they are stunned to learn that Adam has been missing for nearly 10 years.
The Herrmans’ attorney, Warner Eisenbise of Wichita, tells The Eagle that the couple feel “horribly guilty” for not reporting Adam missing in 1999.
Jan. 5, 2009: Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy holds a news conference in El Dorado, telling reporters that detectives are treating Adam’s disappearance as a death, although he could still be alive. Without elaborating, Murphy says investigators are “holding tightly” to something they found and not revealing it. He welcomes national attention to the case, saying it could help locate Adam if he is alive. He asks for the public’s help and releases Adam’s fourth-grade picture.
In an Eagle interview, Valerie Herrman’s relatives accuse her of abusing Adam, including keeping him chained to a bathroom faucet — allegations she denies. She says Adam had been a difficult child but that she has always loved him and misses him.
Jan. 6, 2009: Investigators release an age-progressed image of what Adam might look like now.
During an interview with The Eagle lasting more than two hours, Valerie and Doug Herrman say they love Adam and miss him. Valerie Herrman denies her relatives’ accusations that she abused Adam. She says she did not chain him to a bathroom faucet but did keep him locked in the bathroom on the advice of a psychiatrist after Adam threatened the family.
The Herrmans say they continued to list Adam in court documents as late as 2003, and in a follow-up telephone call, she says they continued to accept $700 monthly adoption subsidy payments for Adam until his 18th birthday, in 2005 — six years after he disappeared.
“I feel very guilty for stealing that money,” she says.
Ponce, the SRS spokeswoman, said SRS has determined the total amount of subsidies the state paid to the Herrmans for Adam over the years. Ponce said SRS won’t disclose the amount because it could hinder any potential criminal prosecution. She wouldn’t elaborate, but added that if anyone knowingly gives false information to the state to get benefits, “that is a crime.”
“We would pursue all legal avenues,” she said.
To receive an adoption subsidy, a family must complete an annual, self-reported form asking whether they continue to be legally and financially responsible for the person adopted. The form’s questions include whether a child lives with them and whether there are any changes that would affect payment eligibility.
Generally, adoption payments end when the child turns 18. Payments are negotiated before the adoption based on the child’s needs, Ponce said. The subsidies are common when a family adopts siblings. Ponce said she couldn’t say why the Herrmans received the payments in Adam’s case.
The payments are designed to help in cases where adoption placement can be difficult because of a child’s medical, emotional and social needs or because the adoption involves a number of siblings, she said.
Jan. 7, 2009: Investigators search the manufactured home that the Herrmans had moved from Towanda, in Butler County, to an area between Bentley and Sedgwick, in rural Sedgwick County.
Jan. 10, 2009: Investigators use dogs to search along the Whitewater River on the west side of Towanda.
Jan. 14, 2009: Acting on an out-of-state tip, authorities spent several hours digging at the empty Towanda mobile home lot where the Herrmans used to live. Workers and investigators — using a massive excavator and shovels — dug, probed and sifted soil from under and around a shed that Adam’s adoptive father installed around the time Adam was last seen in 1999. Investigators used a “sniffer,” a device that can detect gases emitting from a body. But after nearly six hours of searching, Murphy said they found no remains of Adam.
Jan. 15, 2009: A judge in Butler County grants a temporary order prohibiting SRS from releasing records about Adam that “touch upon alleged acts of neglect or child abuse directed towards Adam Herrman.” A hearing on whether the prohibition will continue will be held in March.
Jan. 16, 2009: In an interview, Butler County’s chief prosecutor, County Attorney Jan Satterfield, said that the Herrmans are suspects in his disappearance and that the investigation could result in first-degree felony murder charges, with the underlying crime being child abuse. The Herrmans have not been charged with any crime, and Valerie Herrman’s attorney, Warner Eisenbise, has said that Valerie Herrman denies harming Adam. Attorney Dan Monnat, whose firm is representing Doug Herrman, said, “Doug Hermann is innocent of any act resulting in the disappearance of Adam Herrman.”
Also, Murphy said detectives received an interesting tip Jan 15, but he wouldn’t elaborate. He described it as “an interesting tip that has created some questions for us that have got to be answered.”
Jan. 20, 2009: Murphy announces that officials will look for Adam again on Jan. 24 along the Whitewater River, this time farther south, for about 2 miles. They’ll again be assisted by anthropology experts and search dogs, he said. Murphy also says that his detectives are “still working through leads,” including “a few leads that have sparked our interest.” He wouldn’t elaborate.
Jan. 24, 2009: Murphy confirms that the Jan. 7 search of the manufactured home in rural Sedgwick County — the same home that the Herrmans had moved from Towanda — focused on the bathroom. “We looked at every inch of that bathroom,” Murphy said in Towanda, where search teams scoured the east bank of the Whitewater River. They found “nothing of any interest,” he said. It was the second search along the river.
Feb. 7, 2009: A third search along the Whitewater River fails to find clues. But Murphy doesn’t sound discouraged. “It’s a very hot case,” he says. “We have a lot of focus on it.” Although detectives have interviewed a number of people, they have not been able to talk to Doug and Valerie Herrman, Murphy says. He wouldn’t discuss why.
March 30, 2009 Butler County Sheriff turns over investigative findings – a stack of papers nearly three feet tall – to County Attorney Jan Satterfield to determine if criminal charges will be filed.
December 2009 Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said she expects to make a decision on charges in the Adam Herrman case within the next year.”
A timeline for the Adam Herrman case
[The Wichita Eagle 1/11/09 by Tim Potter]
Update 2: Once again, pathetic sentencing. “Doug and Valerie Herrman, the adoptive parents of a boy missing since 1999, have been sentenced to the maximum allowable for defrauding the government in state adoption subsidies.
The couple pleaded guilty of stealing $15,000 in state adoption subsidies for years their adoptive son, 11-year-old Adam Herrman, was no longer in their care. The couple had originally been accused of stealing more than $50,000 in state subsidies, but pleaded to lesser charges.
Monday, a Butler County judge sentenced the pair to the maximum. Doug was sentenced to nine months in prison; Valerie was sentenced to seven months. They were each ordered to pay $2,500 in court costs. They have also been ordered to repay the state $15,488. They are both subject to up to 12 months of post-release supervision. ”
“Doug and Valerie could still face murder charges in Adam’s disappearance, as there is not statute of limitations in the state of Kansas on murder.
The Herrmans plan to appeal their prison sentences. “
Herrmans sentenced to prison time in fraud case
[KSN 8/1/11]
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