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CHAPTER 20

On the trip back home we talked about how the security was tight in St. Lawrence County, and how Jack Wayner appeared to be working to assure the St. Lawrence County Sheriffs Department that, if at all possible, an arrest would be made. This way we would be discredited, and Jerry Wayner's nightmare would be over with, he wouldn't have to worry about any future news coverage.

We arrived in a Newcomerstown, Ohio, truck stop around 5:00 p.m. on July 23,1997, our daughters were there and took Ervin on home to Wayne County, Ohio. Debra told us that Sheila from 20/20 had called. I called Sheila from the truck stop and told her I'd call her back as soon as I got home, When I got home, about 45 minutes later, I called Sheila back, then called Larry Gifford from 20/20. Larry said they were going to run a piece on 20/20 on Friday the 25th. He said, "David if this goes right you'll be getting some phone calls after this airs. I hope this will give you the support you need."

Grateful, I said, "Thank-you, I hope it works."

Larry said, "We got cut two and a half minutes again from the top down. I'm sorry we're only able to flash thirty seconds on the Miller case, but we'll put our best shots in there. With luck, this will create some media interest."

We got talking, and soon we were talking about the Amish and cases of animal sex that took place among them. Larry said, "Yeah, David, I've seen the side effects of this. I was out at the Swartzentruber Bishop's place trying to interview the Bishop the other night. As we were walking out to the barn, I saw a pig walking around the straw stack smoking a cigarette." Larry seemed really serious when he was saying this, so I wasn't expecting an outsider come up with an Amish joke. He had totally caught me off guard, and it had been a long time since I laughed so hard. I knew I had to get Larry Gifford one way or another some day. And I did. I found the perfect pig for Larry Gifford, which was already fully clothed. All I had to do was punch a hole in its nose to add the cigarette and tape a lighter to his right leg. I made a wooden box and glued straw to the end of it. Then I stapled two spare cigarettes to the floor of the box.

I wrote a note that said, "My name is Bishop Joe Troyer from the Swartzentruber Amish and I used to preach. Squeeze my left leg and I will sing you a song, Larry, oink, oink, oink, oink." The pig was ready to be priority mailed to my friend Larry Gifford.

When I dropped this into the mail priority to Larry, I had to squeeze the pig down to fit him in the box. If you handled the box wrong, you could hear a muffled sound going oink, oink. When this package arrived at ABC 20/20 in New York City their alarm went off, because last year the President of ABC had received a letter bomb from Wayne County, Ohio. This package was also from Ohio with an Amish name on it and a P.O. Box number. ABC Headquarters couldn't figure out what that sound was.

Since they were prepared to do an update on the Amish they thought it was a bomb. They started opening the box carefully from the lower end. When they got to the straw, they were dumb founded. But they continued to open it very carefully. As they were cutting close to the pig they could now hear and understand the sound. When they read the letter and squeezed its hand, it sung them a song. Everyone involved burst into laughter. Larry now has this pig at home, and I apologized profusely for the misunderstanding.

On July 25,1997, we were preparing to go back out on the road. We were also still waiting patiently to watch the piece on 20/20 that evening, and see how they put the piece together on the Andy Miller case. By 10:00 p.m. I was frustrated. 20/20 got bumped by our local TV station due to a ball game. I was receiving phone calls from New York, Alabama, and Ohio. I briefly talked to Ervin when he finished watching the program.

The next morning we got out of bed at 11:00 a.m. and called our company. They said we wouldn't get to go out until tomorrow sometime. So Fran and I jumped on our motorcycle and went up to Wayne County, Ohio, to see Ervin and his family. We spent a couple hours there. From there we went to Knox County, Ohio to visit my sister. My sister and her husband were nice, but the little children stayed back from me. Tension was thick. We left soon after.

On the 27th of July, we went back to work. We picked up a load in Cincinnati, Ohio and went to Pittsburgh, Pa. We picked up a set of empty trailers out of Pittsburgh on the 28th. and went to Charlotte, N.C. From Charlotte we picked up a load going to Los Angeles. Since I-40 was closed in N.C., we took the bottom route and stopped in Jasper, Alabama, where we visited old friends for about four hours.

While we were there I called Ervin and Michelle. My conversation with Ervin was short. He just wanted to tell me that they'd received a letter from their parents stating that if they'd have done anything wrong they were sorry, and that they forgave the children for turning them into the law. Andy and Emma Miller were staying at the Cascade Inn in Canton, New York, at the taxpayer’s expense. I told Ervin that was well and good, but that I didn't believe for a minute that they were really sorry.

On July 29,1997, Ervin and I spoke again. He told me that Fred Bundy called him and wanted the addresses of all the children who were living in Ohio, that they wanted to bring all his brothers and sisters from New York to Ohio and distribute them throughout Wayne and Holmes County, Ohio.

I told Ervin, "You can't do that. You've got to keep those children together. If you and your brother James want to care for them I have no problem with that. But the rest aren't capable."

Ervin also told me that he'd spoken to Ed Hyde. Ed said there was no sense in pursuing the issue on what happened the older children as far as abuse was concerned. He said that it looked as if Andy and Emma were going to let the children come up to Ohio, as long as the children who were over 18 didn't push the child abuse issue.

Ervin said, "Uncle David, what do you think of that?"

"Hog wash" I said, "Ed Hyde is well aware that the worst cases of child abuse were on the children who were now over 18 years of age. Whatever you children do, don't give in to Ed Hyde."

Ervin said, "He told me to get my house ready. My house is ready, and so is James's. And yours, Uncle David." Ervin said there is a free religious counselor set up here in Cochocton County.

Ervin said, "Ed Hyde told me that the parents said they would rather see their children go to their brothers and sisters than to their Uncle David."

I said, "That's well and good, but I only trust Lt. Jim Turner, Governor Harry Hupp and Sheila Easton from the Renewal House. That's all."

Ervin said, "I understand. I feel the same." I told him to stay tough, stand tall and be proud. We arrived in Austin, Texas on July 31,1997, at 5:30 p.m., with a hot load of freight. By 8:00 p.m. we had a load going to Harrisburg, Pa.
August the 1st of 97, I talked to Sheila Easton from Renewal House in Canton, N.Y. She said she investigated the case and she didn't get Michelle, Rachel, Kevin, Ervin, Peter and James an attorney. Disagreeing, I said, "If the children under 18 had an attorney, the children above 18 should have one, too they were also victims of child abuse." She stated Roy Vance was now going to prosecute.
Sheila said, "Keep me updated." I told her I'd get back with her, that I wanted to go over all the paperwork I had first.

If D.A. Roy Vance decided to drop all the criminal charges against Andy and Emma Miller, then the Miller children's rights will have been victimized by both their parents and the system. If it wasn't for me caring for my nieces and nephews, their side of the nightmare would never have been heard.

On August 2,1997, we arrived in Harrisburg, Pa. with our load of freight from Austin, Texas at 4:00 a.m. By 6:00 a.m. we had a short run going to Hartford, Connecticut. We did a turn around from Hartford back to Harrisburg and arrived back in Harrisburg around 9:00 p.m. We took a shower and waited for another load. At 2:30 a.m. we picked up a load going to Phoenix, AZ. I was grappling with one of the hardest decisions of my life. I wanted to tear the walls down between the Amish and the American Public, but in order to do that, I was forced to take action that I'd rather not take.