Two Columbia parents found themselves in a living nightmare Tuesday night when they came home and realized their oldest daughter had been raped, their children had been held at gunpoint and their house had been ransacked.
Three juveniles were arrested early Wednesday in connection with the incident, Columbia police said, and more suspects were being sought.
Police were looking for Christopher Lee Jacobs, 17, of 1405 Avatar Court, on Wednesday evening in connection with the incident and a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to a police news release.
Jacobs has been charged with forcible rape, forcible sodomy, felonious restraint, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and armed criminal action in 13th District Circuit Court, according to Missouri Case.net.
The sexual assault victim was taken to a hospital, according to a police news release. None of the other children required medical treatment as a result of the incident.
Wednesday morning, the children’s father, 48, sat in the shade of his home in northeast Columbia with his knees hugged closely to his chest. Two of his daughters ran around him and his son bounced a basketball on the driveway. The mother and oldest daughter were asleep inside the house, and another daughter was at school to “keep her mind busy,” the father said.
The father and his son, 15, began to tell the story of their traumatic experience; their names are being withheld by the Missourian to conceal the identity of the sexual assault victim.
The parents went out for the evening about 8:30, leaving at home their five children, ages 7 to 16. The son and oldest daughter were left in charge. The son described how he and his sisters were watching TV when they heard a knock on the front door.
“I started to come down the stairs when people with guns and bandanas on were yelling for us to get downstairs,” he said.
Seven men wearing black clothing and bandanas covering their faces came into the house. At gunpoint, the intruders lined up the five siblings face down on the floor of the house’s lower level and bound them with duct tape.
The father said the intruders kicked his youngest daughter, who turns 8 today, in the head.
“They kept asking, ‘Where’s the money?’ and we just kept saying, ‘We don’t have any money,’” the 15-year-old boy said.
The intruders were asking where they could find a safe, but the family does not have one, he said.
At one point, the intruders took a machete-like knife from the garage and swung it at one of the children, who dodged it. He then plunged the knife into the kitchen table.
The intruders ransacked the house, taking anything of value, including video game equipment, food, bath towels and a jar full of change the family uses for ice cream money, the father said.
Then they grabbed the oldest girl and took her into her parents’ bedroom and raped her, her father said.
The father said some of the other intruders acted as lookouts while the assault was taking place.
“A car drove by and I heard them say, ‘Car! Car!’ and they started running,” the son said.
The father said the intruders ran out the back door with a trash bag full of stolen items.
The parents were in Boonville eating at a restaurant and on their way to the Isle of Capri casino when they received a call that their home had been broken into. They raced home and found police already there. They rushed to find their kids.
“I’m not leaving them again,” the father said.
Three juveniles — two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old — were arrested in connection with the home invasion, Columbia police said.
Wednesday evening, police Sgt. Ken Hammond said police were seeking other suspects in the crime, which “appears to be financially motivated.”
Police said the investigation revealed that at least one of the suspects was familiar with one of the victims and that the house was not selected randomly.
The family had moved into the neighborhood in December and has had problems in the neighborhood before. About a week earlier, one of the daughters was struck in the face while waiting in line for the ice cream truck, the father said.
The father, who can’t work and collects disability because he has epilepsy, said he will move his family if the neighborhood doesn’t become safer before their lease expires. The mother is head housekeeper at a Super 8 Motel.
“This is a nightmare,” the father said, “How can you put someone that little on the ground, that cute, and kick them in their head?” he said, pointing at his youngest daughter.
“I’ve seen a lot of pain in my years,” the father said, “but as far as my kids go, I knew they had done nothing wrong, and when I saw it I had to just cry.”
Lesa Reed, 53, has lived on the block where the crime took place for two months.
“There is a lot of concerning behavior with this neighborhood,” Reed said, “My daughter had asked me to please keep the doors locked because these types of things are going on.”
“When I first moved here, college kids lived here, people here were nice,” the father of the victims said. “The college kids moved out; now the neighborhood has went to hell.”
Police ask anyone with any information about this crime to call CrimeStoppers at 875-8477.