The youngest of the three suspected penny loafer perverts failed to appear in court on Thursday with attorneys saying he has been moved to the hospital with mental problems.
Edwin Emery, 78, is now at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, a judge in King County Superior Court was told.
Emery’s two older brothers, Charles, 82, who court papers say is suffering from severe dementia, and Thomas, 80, both appeared in court before Judge Sean O’Donnell.
The trio have been in custody since detectives raided the home they shared in the Meridian area of Seattle on August 9 and discovered mountains of child porn and children’s clothing along with descriptions and pictures of child rape and sacrificial killings.
All three brothers are charged with two counts of possessing child pornography. Thomas pleaded not guilty while Charles was referred to a hospital for mental evaluation before his plea is entered.
Charles Emery (left) 82, who court papers say is suffering from severe dementia, and Thomas (right) 80, both appeared in court before Judge Sean O’Donnell
Police are pictured searching the Emery brothers’ home on August 21, as a tow company removed vintage cars from the shed on the property. Police say they discovered an immense collection of child pornography, girls’ clothing and disturbing writings about raping and murdering children inside their cluttered home
A hand-written manifesto detailing ‘ritualistic and satanic sacrifices’ of young girls was also discovered, along with descriptions of how the girls should always wear penny loafers before their murders
Charles appeared in court first, being pushed into the 12th floor court in a wheelchair. He stared blankly ahead throughout the three-minute hearing, appearing not to understand what was going on.
A few minutes later Thomas shuffled in wearing heavy glasses, a short sleeved red jumpsuit, orange socks and sandals. He was remanded in custody until September 26. All three are being held on $500,000 bail.
His public defender, Joshua Poisel, said he may ask for Thomas to be released. Judge O’Donnell said that if that happens he will have to agree to have no contact with any children.
Police with cadaver dogs have been combing 14 acres of property in Shelton, Washington, that was owned by the brothers’ elder sibling Donald, who died last fall, aged 85.
They are looking to see if the brothers may be connected to the case of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum, who disappeared from her home, a half-hour drive from the Sheldon property, in 2009 – or other missing person cases.
‘It’s very clear that these three individuals have an obsession with young female children,’ Capt. Mike Edwards of federal Internet Crimes Against Children task force told reporters.
‘They’ve had this obsession for most if not all of their lives and in some cases acted out on that obsession against family members.’
Charles appeared in court first, being pushed into the 12th floor court in a wheelchair. He stared blankly ahead throughout the three-minute hearing, appearing not to understand what was going on
Thomas was remanded in custody until September 26. All three brothers are being held on $500,000 bail
Edwards told DailyMail.com the search at the Shelton home could go on for weeks.
‘We have something like 14 acres to cover and it’s not like it’s all flat. It is hilly and wooded and difficult going,’ he said.
He stressed there is nothing definite linking the Emery brothers to any missing child.
‘But if we thought there was zero chance of finding anything there we would not be searching there,’ he added.
A further kink in the case involves the whereabouts of Donald’s wife Sandra. Court papers unearthed by DailyMail.com show she went missing just three months after the June 1970 wedding.
Divorce papers filed by Donald in Tacoma in May 1987 say he could never find her after she vanished. Sandra would now be 77 if she is still alive. Donald was the only brother who married.
Donald Emery died last fall aged 85
He said they had married in Shelton in June 1970. According to a notice in the local paper Donald Emery, then 39, and Sandra Eddy, 30, took out a marriage license that month.
Efforts by DailyMail.com to locate Sandra were unsuccessful. Eddy was the last name of her first husband, Henry, whom she married in 1956 when she was just 16. Her maiden name was Hansen, records show.
Throughout the divorce papers, Donald Emery even spells the name of his wife wrongly. He calls her ‘Samdra.’
He filed, saying his marriage had ‘irretrievably broken down,’ and said he did not know where his wife was living. He claimed they had separated in September, 1970. They had no children.
‘I believe (Sandra) is not a resident of this state or if she is in the State of Washington she is concealing herself,’ he said in a sworn statement, explaining why he could not serve her with divorce papers.
‘I have made careful inquiry of relations, friends and business associates…and I cannot learn of her present whereabouts.’
A judge in Tacoma approved the divorce on September 8, 1987, four months after Emery had first filed.
Seattle police would not say whether they are searching for Sandra.
The three surviving Emery brothers were turned in by a 49-year-old niece who had been appointed guardian of Charles in July. When she started rummaging through his property she found mountains of disturbing photographs and children’s clothes and reported it to police.
Police cadaver dogs began a grim search earlier this month of the secluded 14-acre waterfront property once owned by the the Emerys’ older brother, Donald, who died last year aged 85
A cadaver search team is pictured on the property of the former home of Donald Emery in Shelton, Washington on August 26
She said, she, her mother, and her daughter had all been molested by at least two of the brothers over the years. The abuse against her mother was so bad as a child that she had to leave the family home and was fostered out.
When cops raided their home they found a huge trove of material including pictures of child rape and murder and an extensive collection of children’s clothes including dozens of pairs of penny loafer shoes.
Similar material was found at Donald’s tiny ramshackle house that overlooks picturesque Oakland Bay, an arm of the Puget Sound.
The brothers’ niece lives 100 miles from Seattle. Her husband told DailyMail.com she did not want to speak. ‘She is not doing well,’ he said. DailyMail.com is not identifying her as she is an alleged victim of sexual abuse.
Charles, a former janitor at Seattle Children’s Hospital, was arrested at a Seattle nursing home where he had been living for less than a month. According to Newsweek a detective walked into the Aegis of Queen Anne on Galer facility, took a swab from Charles’s mouth as he slept and then woke him and started questioning him.
The two younger brothers were arrested at their home. They have been held in jail on $500,000 bail ever since.
Charles was arrested at a Seattle nursing home (pictured) where he had been living for less than a month
Papers filed in Charles’s guardianship say he suffers from ‘severe’ dementia.
‘Mr. Emery will have continuing mental deficits which make it highly unlikely that he will recover from his challenges,’ the niece’s lawyer wrote.
He was taken to the hospital after his two brothers disappeared from the house. They returned on July 11 after a week, the papers say.
‘As a result of his dementia, Mr. Emery needs assistance with several activities of daily living,’ the lawyer wrote. ‘He needs prompting for dressing and personal hygiene grooming, bathing and oral care, as well as assistance with basic communication as he often repeats himself.
‘Mr. Emery suffers from memory loss. He has reported his truck was stolen over 14 times, despite the fact that he sold the truck himself.
The papers said the hospital was ready to discharge Emery but the nursing home would not take him until they were paid a $13,000 entrance fee and a further $12,124 for the first month’s rent.
According to the papers, Charles Emery has around a quarter of a million dollars in the bank and receives a $3,100 pension from Boeing. He is expected to inherit up to another $150,000 from Donald’s will.
Cops spent weeks combing through the brothers’ house in Seattle. They took away three vehicles, including a World War II-era Packard Super Eight convertible and a Ford Model A from the 1930s.
Cops are looking to see if the brothers may be connected to the case of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum (pictured), who disappeared from her home in 2009
A flyer about the Baum case was found inside the Shelton home, where Charles Emery, 82, a former janitor at Seattle Children’s Hospital, lived part-time with his brother Donald, who died last October. She disappeared while on a 10-minute walk home from a friend’s house
Among the items discovered in the Seattle house were thousands of ‘images of minor female children both clothed and nude and engaged in sexually explicit conduct and lascivious display,’ according to a criminal complaint filed in court in the city.
Police found several miniature vodka bottles. One of them contained the initials of the brothers’ great-niece with the inscription that her ‘first half ounce of liquor came from this bottle.’
Also discovered were: ‘dozens of pairs of children’s shoes, most of which are penny loafer style shoes with pennies inserted in the front of the shoes; several pairs of minor female children style underwear containing stains and indicia of use; children’s socks; dozens of books and articles related to child homicide, child sexual assault, and missing and murdered female child victims to include both local and national cases,’ according to the complaint.
‘Of note, law enforcement discovered a pink child’s hat partially buried next to a burned handwritten letter (similar to those letters discovered in prior searches in which the sexual abuse and homicide of female children was contained) in a dirt crawl space,’ the complaint states.
The niece told police that when she was a child, Charles made her dress in penny loafer shoes and socks similar to those found in the house before the abuse.
Court papers (pictured) uncovered in Tacoma by DailyMail.com show that Donald filed for divorce from Sandra in May 1987
He filed, saying his marriage had ‘irretrievably broken down,’ and said he did not know where his wife was living
The niece told cops she had burned some of the material before she realized just how awful it was.
But on August 9 she took ‘several large trash bags’ full of child porn and clothing to the cops. The images were so disturbing that Seattle Detective Daniel Conine would only describe two of them in detail in the complaint.
One of them, Conine said, was a full-frontal picture of a girl estimated to be between 8 and 10, wearing only pink and orange hairpins, with an electric drill in her hands.
Donald Emery even spells the name of his wife wrongly. He calls her ‘Samdra’
‘The image is designed to look like the cover of a magazine, and the word ‘Builders’ is headlined at the top of the photos,’ wrote Conine. The words ‘Put yourself in the hands of these absolutely astonishing and gifted builders. These tireless workers will build a castle of joy for you,’ are printed along the photograph.
The second picture of a naked girl appeared to come from a now-defunct website called ‘vestalgirls.com’.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Lindsey Baum’s cousin Jasmine Pierpoint said: ‘As this Emery brothers case is revealed, we find the thought of it horrific and unimaginable. It seems that as this case unfolds, that it will lead to answers for someone, if not for us regarding Lindsey.
‘It shouldn’t take a horrific scenario such as with the Emery brothers to bring the cases of all Missing Persons to light. We need to remind people that this sort of thing is real and it does happen and can touch.
‘We certainly hope that we find our answers and our truths about what happened to our Lindsey, be it with this case or another.’