Charles Emery 82 (above) along with brothers Thomas Emery, 80, and 78-year-old Edwin Emery are suspects in the 2009 disappearance of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum
Police with cadaver dogs moved in early Saturday to a ramshackle property connected to the alleged penny loafer pervert brothers whose depraved preying on children has shocked the nation.
Led by members of the federal Internet Crimes Against Children task force, cops and their K-9s began scouring some 14 acres of land overlooking picturesque Oakland Bay, an arm of the Puget Sound.
They are searching for bodies which may have been buried there by four brothers, three of whom are now in jail awaiting trial. The fourth, who owned the property in Shelton, Washington, died in October last year.
‘It’s a massive task. We don’t know for sure that bodies are buried there — and if there are, we don’t know where they are,’ said one cop involved in the search.
Brothers Charles, Thomas, and Edwin Emery were arrested last week and each charged with two counts of possessing child pornography.
Charles, 82, who is suffering from dementia, was taken from his nursing home. Thomas, 80, and Edwin, 78, were arrested at their home in the Meridian section of Seattle.
Cops believe they may be linked to the disappearance of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum, who vanished in 2009 while walking home from a friend’s home in McCleary, Washington, and possibly other cases of missing children.
Saturday’s search was centered on a tiny moss covered house on the side of a busy highway in Shelton, on the west side of the Puget Sound, a half-hour drive from McCleary. It was owned by the Emerys’ older brother, Donald, who died last year aged 85.
Charles is understood to have lived at the home part-time.
Police cadaver dogs began a grim search on Saturday of the secluded 14-acre waterfront property once owned by the the Emerys’ older brother, Donald, who died last year aged 85
Up to a dozen rotting cars are parked on land behind the lake house on Oakland Bay, an arm of the Puget Sound. The house, which Donald Emery bought in 1968, is in a filthy condition
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
Capt. Mike Edwards of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force 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.
Police found masses of pornography in the Shelton home, just as they did when they raided the brothers’ house in Seattle. They also discovered a flyer about the Baum case.
The Shelton house, which Donald Emery bought in 1968, is in a filthy condition. Up to a dozen rotting cars are parked on land behind it.
Donald is the only one of the four brothers who married, although it ended in divorce. None of the brothers had children.
Many of the items describe satanic sacrifices of children. ‘The house is full of written documentation that may or may not be connected to various crimes,’ Mason County’s Chief Crime Deputy Ryan Spurling told DailyMail.com.
‘There is so much evidence that has to be processed. Then we have to determine what it all means and whether it is connected to other crimes.’
Shelton is in Mason County, Washington, although the investigation is being led by officers from Seattle, a two-hour drive away.
Ten-year-old Lindsey went missing in 2009 in McCleary, Washington, just a half hour from the ramshackle property that cops searched with cadaver dogs on Saturday
The dilapidated house is on the west side of the Puget Sound, a half-hour drive from McCleary. Police expanded their search here after a search of the brothers’ Seattle home turned up a sickening trove of child porn and kids’ penny loafers
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.
Lindsey disappeared in 2009 while on a walk near her home
Police also 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.
Cops were alerted to the horrific contents of the Seattle house by a niece of the brothers who had been appointed legal guardian to Charles Emery as she is his closest healthy relative. She was trying to get Charles’s property in order.
That then led cops to the home in Shelton where the brothers could more easily have taken victims without risk of being seen.
The three brother’s primary home in Seattle was searched extensively earlier this week. Police say they discovered an immense collection of child pornography, girls’ clothing and disturbing writings about raping and murdering children inside the cluttered home
Officers who arrived on the Seattle property reportedly found it crammed ‘floor to ceiling’ with a staggering trove of child pornography, including photographs, videos and related materials
The niece told police that she had been molested by at least two of brothers when she was a child as had her mother.
She said that before the abuse Charles made her dress in penny loafer shoes and socks similar to those found in the house.
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.
‘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’.
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
‘It’s very clear that these three individuals have an obsession with young female children,’ Capt. Mike Edwards of the Seattle Police Department told reporters Monday. ‘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.’
Neighbors in Seattle considered the three men who lived there as harmless. They said they would regularly see Charles walking up and down their street looking for his truck, which, due to his befuddled state of mind, he believed had been stolen.
‘I would see him regularly, probably once a month,’ said one neighbor, who declined to give her name. ‘He would always ask if I had seen his truck because it had been stolen again.
‘I understand his relatives had taken it because he clearly wasn’t fit to drive.’
‘What upsets me more than anything else is that I thought he and his brothers were just harmless old men — and I think I have a pretty good “creep radar,” ‘ added the woman.
‘Nothing about them raised my alarm.’
But a man who lived on the street in the Meridian section of the city as a child, told DailyMail.com that he remembered the brothers often asking local children if they could take their pictures.
Two vintage cars, a dilapidated World War II-era Packard Super Eight convertible and a tan-colored Model A Ford built around 1930, without an engine, were towed from the Seattle house’s garage on Wednesday. A third car was removed on Thursday.
A Packard Super Eight was towed from the Seattle home and is set to be searched for DNA evidence
A a tan-colored Model A Ford built around 1930, without an engine, was also towed from the Seattle house’s garage on Wednesday. Cops have been combing through the house in the Meridian section of Seattle for two weeks
It is understood the vehicles will be searched for DNA evidence. Thomas and Edwin Emery both insisted they never went inside the garage where many incriminating items were discovered.
Edwin, the youngest of the Emery brothers, told detectives he was the only one who used a computer and he often downloaded child porn for his brothers. He was investigated in 2013 after taking a computer to Office Depot for repair. Workers there discovered 20 images of child porn and reported it to police.
However, cops said there was not enough evidence at the time to gain a conviction against him so he was not prosecuted. None of the brothers have any criminal record.
During interviews, police say both Thomas and Edwin Emery ‘remained nonchalant and relatively unconcerned about the serious nature of the investigation.’
Edwin, cops say, ‘confirmed that he is sexually attracted to females who are at the beginning of puberty, and usually around the age of 12.’
Thomas ‘denied having any sexual interest in children, or anybody for that matter.’
When asked why his brother had said he regularly gave him pornographic pictures, Thomas said Edwin must have misunderstood him, because he was asking for ‘information about model houses.’
Anyone with information about the Emery brothers case please contact MARTIN.GOULD@DAILYMAIL.COM