Captors Sexually Abused Amish Girls: DA

The two Amish girls kidnapped from a roadside farmstand in Upstate New York were sexually abused by their captors, St. Lawrence County DA Mary Rain confirms to the Syracuse Post-Standard. Stephen Howells, 39, and 25-year-old girlfriend Nicole Vaisey have each been charged with two counts of kidnapping; it's unclear if they'll face further charges in the case. An attorney for Vaisey, however, is wasting no time in distancing her from Howells. "She appears to have been the slave and he was the master," Bradford Riendeau tells the New York Times. "She was not the lead person or a coequal in this at all." Rains is not buying that argument, countering that "We are confident that she was equally involved in the allegations as he was." (More Amish stories.)