UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Three men have been jailed on charges they helped five girls - four sisters and the young child of the oldest girl - run away from a western Pennsylvania foster home, though police haven’t completely explained how or why.
Joseph Sickler, 41, of Pittsburgh, and Jacques Johns Jr., of Uniontown and Erik Spaziani, of Charleroi, both 18, were arrested and charged late Wednesday with five counts each of interfering with custody, conspiracy and concealing the whereabouts of the child.
State police said the sisters, ages 17, 14, 11 and 7, and the 2-year-old toddler, left their foster home in Unity Township in Westmoreland County earlier that day. The men are charged with helping the girls travel to neighboring Fayette County.
Complicating matters is that the girls are from a third county, Washington, where caseworkers assigned them to the foster home.
Privacy laws prevent police or the county child welfare agency from saying why the girls were in foster care, said Trooper Steven Limani, spokesman for the Greensburg barracks, which first investigated the case.
The girls were placed in foster care Tuesday and left the home about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Police believe one of the suspects is the boyfriend of the oldest sister, though Limani didn’t say which one. The girls apparently just were unhappy about being placed in foster care, Limani said.
Court records don’t list attorneys for the suspects, who face a preliminary hearing in Fayette County on Tuesday. All three were jailed in Uniontown, the Fayette County seat, about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh. That’s where the girls turned themselves in to police after a bulletin was issued that they were missing.
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