Police release search warrant in Missouri sex abuse case

COLUMBIA — Several family members who say they were sexually abused as children by adult relatives remember being taken to various locations and photographed with naked men, police investigators said in a search warrant released Thursday.

The family members, who are now adults, told Columbia Police investigators they remembered being taken to "various locations and having to pose for pictures in a sexual and provocative manner," according to the Nov. 12 warrant.

"They also recall pictures being taken while they were placed on a bed with naked men climbing onto the bed," the warrant states.

The warrant did not specify how many of the alleged victims said they had to pose for the photographs, nor did it identify a location.

Authorities seized more than 60 videos and computer equipment from the home of 48-year-old Jared Mohler, according to the warrant. Mohler, his father, uncle and three brothers are accused of raping and molesting several young relatives over roughly a decade beginning in the mid-1980s. They have not entered pleas.

Mohler's lawyer, Tim Larimore, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. The Lafayette County clerk said the other men charged did not have attorneys.

Other relatives of the men charged said earlier this week they do not believe the accusations.

Investigators said in the warrant that the mother of the children was told about the alleged abuse but that she didn't tell authorities. They say she instead told church leaders. The warrant did not identify the church.

Three of the men charged in the case have been suspended from their duties as lay ministers in the Community of Christ church, which is based in Independence.

The warrant said the mother has been cooperating with the investigation.

Jared Mohler's father, Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence; and his three brothers, Burrell Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence, Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City, and David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa, are each charged with several counts of rape and use of a child in a sexual performance.

Jared Mohler's uncle, Darrel W. Mohler, 72, of Silver Springs, Fla., is charged with two counts of rape.