More children taken from Ozarks church amid sex abuse case

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Eight more children were taken into protective custody Thursday at a southwest Missouri church compound whose leader is being sought on felony warrants for allegedly sexually abusing a former female church member when she was a child.

Newton County chief deputy Chris Jennings said he believes authorities have now taken all the children from the compound, which is affiliated with another Ozarks church community where the pastor, his wife and two deacons face charges of abusing young girls from 1977 to 2005.

A judge in Newton County earlier ordered all children removed for their own safety from the Grandview Valley Baptist Church North, after prosecutors charged George O. Johnston, 63, with eight counts of sexually abusing a former church member starting when she was 8 years old.

Johnston is being sought nationally on felony warrants. Jennings said there were no firm leads yet on his whereabouts.

Authorities removed four children ranging in ages from 5 to 15 on Monday. Deputies and juvenile authorities returned Thursday to the property in Granby, near Neosho and about 75 miles southwest of Springfield, and found more children, ranging in ages from about 6 to 17.

Jennings said all the children were placed in foster care.

"We believe that we've gotten all the children out of that living area. That was our goal today, to get them all out of there," Jennings said.

The Granby compound, a collection of mobile homes on leased land, is affiliated with another live-in church community on a farm named Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, about 40 miles farther south in McDonald County.

Jennings said the Granby community was founded five or six years ago by people from the McDonald County church.

Felony complaints including child molestation and sodomy were filed last week by the McDonald County prosecutor against the Rev. Raymond Lambert, pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church; his wife, Patty Lambert; and her brothers, Paul and Tom Epling.

All four turned themselves in Monday and were released on bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2 to determine whether the case will go to trial.

Prosecutors alleged that Lambert, 51, helped by his 49-year-old wife, repeatedly molested and had sex with two underage girls, "as part of a ritual or ceremony," according to the court filing.

The alleged abuses took place over a 10-year span until 2005, prosecutors said.

Lambert told the girls, "We are preparing your body for service to God," according to the complaint.

Separate felony complaints against the Epling brothers -- Paul Epling is 53 and Tom Epling is 51 -- allege that each repeatedly had sex with girls as young as 4 in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

An attorney for the four said they denied the allegations.