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Do IT this week: Layering
In 2002, Summit officials reunited two children with their parents. Now the adults face accusations of rape and child porn
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:25 a.m. EDT, Oct 11, 2009
When an Akron police officer walked inside the apartment, what he saw left him speechless.
Two babies wore soiled diapers; one bore a severe rash covering her private area. Food spoiled on the furniture; filth was everywhere.
Overall, the officer wrote, the apartment of Michael Winland and Stephennie Murphy was ''beyond words.''
That day in 2001, Summit County Children Services took custody of the couple's two daughters, ages 2 and nearly 1, and police charged the parents with child endangering.
In a short time, however, the family was reunited and — to the surprise of some — attention faded away from the children.
''The bottom line is CSB failed those children from the day they were born,'' said Thelma Sindelar, the children's paternal grandmother.
The focus on the couple came back this past August, when a neighborhood girl told her father that Winland had molested her. And it wasn't long, police said, before they learned there could be other victims.
Not long after, detectives discovered file after file of child pornography on Winland's computers — some downloaded off the Internet, others homemade.
As for Murphy, police said, she stood watch, sometimes holding the camera, as Winland molested young girls, police said.
Authorities say she told this to detectives while showing no emotion and not asking about her children.
''She couldn't give any explanation. That's the weird thing. How do you explain that?'' asked Akron police Detective Tony Starvaggi. ''There was no remorse. Not one single tear. I'd think after she spilled her guts, she'd break down.
''But, she didn't.''
Winland refused to speak with detectives and asked for a lawyer.
Winland, Murphy and their attorneys did not comment for this story.
Allegations that Winland molested several girls with Murphy's indifference has shocked neighbors along Hazel Street on the city's east side.
It has also raised questions from Winland's family about about Children Services' role over the years.
Winland, 37, and Murphy, 31, are being held in the Summit County Jail. They have been indicted together on rape and child pornography charges that could result in life prison sentences.
They have pleaded not guilty. More charges are possible, police said.
Their daughters are in foster care, staying in the same home.
A chance meeting
Relatives say Winland and Murphy met by chance around 1998 in Barberton. Winland, separated from his wife at the time, had answered a personal ad from a woman who was friends with Murphy.
Before long, Winland and Murphy were living together near his hometown of Woodsfield, a rural community in southern Ohio.
Both came from nontraditional families.
Winland was raised an only child by a single mother. Murphy was 7 years old when she went to live in the Kenmore area with her uncle after her mother's death from kidney disease and her father's suicide two months later.
Thelma Sindelar, Winland's mother, said her son was bright but unambitious. He never held a steady job and failed during brief stints in the U.S. Navy and a technical college. He never met his father until he was an adult.
Winland, his mother said, had a passion for three things: Pepsi-Cola, chewing tobacco and computers.
''He was raised in a Christian home. We weren't rich, but he never did without,'' she said.
Winland was married for about a year to a Southern Ohio woman. The marriage ended, the woman said last week, because she feared he abused her children, including forcing them inside a chest freezer.
Murphy, meanwhile, trudged through her school years before setting off on her own at age 17. She has had only sporadic contact with her family since.
''She was kind of slow, a slow learner,'' said her uncle, Karl Brown Jr., who raised her until she was 17. ''She's got a low IQ. So she struggled a lot in school.
''There were a lot of problems with Stephennie. She took off when she was 17, 18 years old. She wasn't able to take care of herself. Look what's happened.''
With Winland providing the guidance, Murphy followed him to his old stomping grounds in southern Ohio and back north, settling in Akron. Their first daughter was born in 1998; another girl followed 15 months later.
Relatives concerned
Children Services was contacted in Guernsey and Monroe counties almost immediately because relatives were concerned over Murphy's mothering skills and the condition of the home, Sindelar said.
Their life, family members said, was a wreck. Neither parent worked long and often filed workers' compensation claims, according to their 2009 bankruptcy records.
The children often were left in soiled diapers and food was scarce. At 6 months of age, the older daughter weighed 10 pounds, Sindelar recalled.
By July 2001, at the urging of family members, Akron police and CSB came knocking. The house was in disarray; the children were equally messy.
Winland and Murphy were each charged with misdemeanor child endangering for neglect. They pleaded no contest and received a fine with a suspended jail sentence.
Arrest warrants were issued in November 2001 when they failed to pay their fines. The warrants remained unanswered until August.
The couple and their children, meanwhile, were reunited in February 2002. CSB maintained contact with them until the following October.
Sharon Geffken, Children Services' deputy executive director, said Friday that confidentiality laws and the pending criminal case preclude her discussing the matter.
She did say there were periodic calls and investigations between 2002 and last month, when the girls were taken into the custody of CSB.
''We have had some past contact with the family and we also had custody of the children when they were very young,'' Geffken said last week. ''Beyond that, while the prosecution is occurring, we can't comment further until that is completed.''
Geffken would not answer questions about the education the girls, now 10 and 8, were receiving the past several years. Murphy told neighbors she was home-schooling the children.
An Akron Public Schools spokeswoman said they have no record of the girls being registered as home-schoolers.
Parents who home-school their children are required to notify their local school district of the arrangement and to provide annual academic assessments of their child's educational progress.
''There was never a book bought for those children,'' Sindelar said.
Sindelar said she gave up on her complaints to CSB after her son threatened to harm her. She hasn't spoken to him in several years, but has kept tabs on her granddaughters through Murphy's family and friends.
Molestation complaint
In August, police and CSB came back to Winland and Murphy. It happened after an 8-year-old girl visiting the home complained that she was molested by Winland, something he denied to neighbors.
Other neighborhood children, parents said, had also played inside Winland's house, usually in an attic where he sat at a computer. Police say Winland may have molested at least five girls, all under age 13. Only two allegations so far have resulted in criminal charges.
''I couldn't believe it. So, I went up to him and I said: 'I will be straightforward with you: My child played in there and I trusted you all. Did you touch my child?' '' neighbor Latoni Gordon said. ''He said, 'If I did, I'll give you a knife and you can slit my throat.' ''
Gordon's daughter was not harmed, police said.
Winland was jailed over a weekend in August for the 2001 warrant.
Police, meanwhile, arranged to seize his two desktop computers, several hard drives, a laptop computer and several CDs.
Porn on computer
Winland told detectives he had every kind of pornography available, but not any involving children. Detectives, however, said they found hundreds of images.
When Winland left jail after the weekend, he was given instructions from CSB not to see his children while the investigation into the neighbor child's accusation continued.
''That Monday, when he got out, he went straight to the apartment, got the kids and Stephennie and they were in the wind for a few days,'' Starvaggi said. ''We were concerned. CSB was concerned because they violated the safety plan. They weren't telling CSB where they were.''
About a week later, a caller tipped off police that Winland and Murphy were back at Hazel Street. Winland was arrested immediately on 18 child pornography charges, and his children were taken into CSB custody.
Murphy remained free until her arrest this month for complicity to rape charges. A grand jury now also has charged Winland with rape. Police say the couple worked together to record the sexual assault of a girl under age 13.
''I just can't help but think that all those kids would not have been harmed had somebody done something all those years ago,'' Sindelar said.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
When an Akron police officer walked inside the apartment, what he saw left him speechless.
Two babies wore soiled diapers; one bore a severe rash covering her private area. Food spoiled on the furniture; filth was everywhere.
Overall, the officer wrote, the apartment of Michael Winland and Stephennie Murphy was ''beyond words.''
That day in 2001, Summit County Children Services took custody of the couple's two daughters, ages 2 and nearly 1, and police charged the parents with child endangering.
In a short time, however, the family was reunited and — to the surprise of some — attention faded away from the children.
''The bottom line is CSB failed those children from the day they were born,'' said Thelma Sindelar, the children's paternal grandmother.
The focus on the couple came back this past August, when a neighborhood girl told her father that Winland had molested her. And it wasn't long, police said, before they learned there could be other victims.
Not long after, detectives discovered file after file of child pornography on Winland's computers — some downloaded off the Internet, others homemade.
As for Murphy, police said, she stood watch, sometimes holding the camera, as Winland molested young girls, police said.
Authorities say she told this to detectives while showing no emotion and not asking about her children.
''She couldn't give any explanation. That's the weird thing. How do you explain that?'' asked Akron police Detective Tony Starvaggi. ''There was no remorse. Not one single tear. I'd think after she spilled her guts, she'd break down.
''But, she didn't.''
Winland refused to speak with detectives and asked for a lawyer.
Winland, Murphy and their attorneys did not comment for this story.
Allegations that Winland molested several girls with Murphy's indifference has shocked neighbors along Hazel Street on the city's east side.
It has also raised questions from Winland's family about about Children Services' role over the years.
Winland, 37, and Murphy, 31, are being held in the Summit County Jail. They have been indicted together on rape and child pornography charges that could result in life prison sentences.
They have pleaded not guilty. More charges are possible, police said.
Their daughters are in foster care, staying in the same home.
A chance meeting
Relatives say Winland and Murphy met by chance around 1998 in Barberton. Winland, separated from his wife at the time, had answered a personal ad from a woman who was friends with Murphy.
Before long, Winland and Murphy were living together near his hometown of Woodsfield, a rural community in southern Ohio.
Both came from nontraditional families.
Winland was raised an only child by a single mother. Murphy was 7 years old when she went to live in the Kenmore area with her uncle after her mother's death from kidney disease and her father's suicide two months later.
Thelma Sindelar, Winland's mother, said her son was bright but unambitious. He never held a steady job and failed during brief stints in the U.S. Navy and a technical college. He never met his father until he was an adult.
Winland, his mother said, had a passion for three things: Pepsi-Cola, chewing tobacco and computers.
''He was raised in a Christian home. We weren't rich, but he never did without,'' she said.
Winland was married for about a year to a Southern Ohio woman. The marriage ended, the woman said last week, because she feared he abused her children, including forcing them inside a chest freezer.
Murphy, meanwhile, trudged through her school years before setting off on her own at age 17. She has had only sporadic contact with her family since.
''She was kind of slow, a slow learner,'' said her uncle, Karl Brown Jr., who raised her until she was 17. ''She's got a low IQ. So she struggled a lot in school.
''There were a lot of problems with Stephennie. She took off when she was 17, 18 years old. She wasn't able to take care of herself. Look what's happened.''
With Winland providing the guidance, Murphy followed him to his old stomping grounds in southern Ohio and back north, settling in Akron. Their first daughter was born in 1998; another girl followed 15 months later.
Relatives concerned
Children Services was contacted in Guernsey and Monroe counties almost immediately because relatives were concerned over Murphy's mothering skills and the condition of the home, Sindelar said.
Their life, family members said, was a wreck. Neither parent worked long and often filed workers' compensation claims, according to their 2009 bankruptcy records.
The children often were left in soiled diapers and food was scarce. At 6 months of age, the older daughter weighed 10 pounds, Sindelar recalled.
By July 2001, at the urging of family members, Akron police and CSB came knocking. The house was in disarray; the children were equally messy.
Winland and Murphy were each charged with misdemeanor child endangering for neglect. They pleaded no contest and received a fine with a suspended jail sentence.
Arrest warrants were issued in November 2001 when they failed to pay their fines. The warrants remained unanswered until August.
The couple and their children, meanwhile, were reunited in February 2002. CSB maintained contact with them until the following October.
Sharon Geffken, Children Services' deputy executive director, said Friday that confidentiality laws and the pending criminal case preclude her discussing the matter.
She did say there were periodic calls and investigations between 2002 and last month, when the girls were taken into the custody of CSB.
''We have had some past contact with the family and we also had custody of the children when they were very young,'' Geffken said last week. ''Beyond that, while the prosecution is occurring, we can't comment further until that is completed.''
Geffken would not answer questions about the education the girls, now 10 and 8, were receiving the past several years. Murphy told neighbors she was home-schooling the children.
An Akron Public Schools spokeswoman said they have no record of the girls being registered as home-schoolers.
Parents who home-school their children are required to notify their local school district of the arrangement and to provide annual academic assessments of their child's educational progress.
''There was never a book bought for those children,'' Sindelar said.
Sindelar said she gave up on her complaints to CSB after her son threatened to harm her. She hasn't spoken to him in several years, but has kept tabs on her granddaughters through Murphy's family and friends.
Molestation complaint
In August, police and CSB came back to Winland and Murphy. It happened after an 8-year-old girl visiting the home complained that she was molested by Winland, something he denied to neighbors.
Other neighborhood children, parents said, had also played inside Winland's house, usually in an attic where he sat at a computer. Police say Winland may have molested at least five girls, all under age 13. Only two allegations so far have resulted in criminal charges.
''I couldn't believe it. So, I went up to him and I said: 'I will be straightforward with you: My child played in there and I trusted you all. Did you touch my child?' '' neighbor Latoni Gordon said. ''He said, 'If I did, I'll give you a knife and you can slit my throat.' ''
Gordon's daughter was not harmed, police said.
Winland was jailed over a weekend in August for the 2001 warrant.
Police, meanwhile, arranged to seize his two desktop computers, several hard drives, a laptop computer and several CDs.
Porn on computer
Winland told detectives he had every kind of pornography available, but not any involving children. Detectives, however, said they found hundreds of images.
When Winland left jail after the weekend, he was given instructions from CSB not to see his children while the investigation into the neighbor child's accusation continued.
''That Monday, when he got out, he went straight to the apartment, got the kids and Stephennie and they were in the wind for a few days,'' Starvaggi said. ''We were concerned. CSB was concerned because they violated the safety plan. They weren't telling CSB where they were.''
About a week later, a caller tipped off police that Winland and Murphy were back at Hazel Street. Winland was arrested immediately on 18 child pornography charges, and his children were taken into CSB custody.
Murphy remained free until her arrest this month for complicity to rape charges. A grand jury now also has charged Winland with rape. Police say the couple worked together to record the sexual assault of a girl under age 13.
''I just can't help but think that all those kids would not have been harmed had somebody done something all those years ago,'' Sindelar said.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
