April 16, 2008
Law-enforcement officials in Henrico County are investigating what they call a “shocking display” of monogamy on a small parcel of land in the West End, where two adults have been found holding three young children captive in a 3,100-square-foot compound.
Henrico police sergeant Darren L. Muskie said officers raided the group’s Cape Cod-style ranch a week ago after a receiving a tip that three
underage children were being forced against their will to eat dinner every evening together with their rulers, attend up to eight hours of daily educational instruction outside of the home, and – at least once a week – visit an elderly woman in Chesterfield County said to be the birth mother of sect leader and self-proclaimed monogamist Michael Schott.
The children, Muskie said, had been taught by Schott to refer to the 42-year-old member of the Baptist Church of River Road as “Dad.”
What officers found inside the complex was worse, police said.
“We’ve seized several pieces of evidence that we believe prove that two of these children – the boys – were being forced to sleep in the same room,” a visibly shaken Muskie told reporters. “They were likely spending their nights on the same bedding structure, with mattresses stacked two high – one bed frame near the floor, with the older son having to climb a ladder in order to reach the above bed.”
“To see people having to live this way was heartbreaking,” Muskie added, noting all three children were told regularly to make their beds, take out the garbage and bathe at least once a day.
Meredith Geer, a Richmond marriage counselor and monogamy expert, said she was not surprised by the findings.
“Many researchers who have studied monogamy say that that this practice, however hard to believe, could be widespread throughout the nation,” Geer said, admitting that while she once was a monogamist, she now copulates with up to seven partners annually. “More and more, however, we find that around 50 percent of monogamist groups like the Schotts eventually ‘throw in the towel’ so to speak, and completely give up that lifestyle.”
Though police gave no further details on the Henrico raid, sources close to the investigation said detectives have discovered what appears to be an underground bunker at the Schott compound, where officials believe the children spent hours with one another – and various other children not a part of the Schott sect – throughout the day.
The source said police have recovered from the windowless shelter a box full of small-scale soldiers with plastic weapons; three bins of multi-colored, inter-locking blocks used to create a variety of buildings and obscure shapes; and an easel where it appears the middle child - a 6-year-old girl – tried to establish some sort of code with her leaders, scribbling out barely-recognizable words and pictures to her captors.
The children’s leaders also had a strict policy of only two hours a day on the monogamists’ Nintendo Wii, the source said.
Muskie later warned that the department had “reason to believe” that other households in the area were practicing monogamy, and the county planned to find those groups and bring them to justice.
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