Missouri reform school owners face 102 charges, including abuse and statutory rape
Boyd Householder, who with his wife owned Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch until it closed in September amid abuse allegations, has been charged with 80 criminal counts, including statutory rape and sodomy.
Those charges are spelled out in an online court records database. More details will be provided at a noon news conference Wednesday in Jefferson City.
His wife, Stephanie Householder, 55, is charged with 22 counts, according to the online database. Ten are for endangering the welfare of a child in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Twelve charges are for abuse or neglect of a child in the same three years.
Sources told The Star Tuesday evening that the Householders had been arrested and booked into the Vernon County Jail.
The charges come after a months-long investigation by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office. Before that, at least two law enforcement agencies and one state investigative team interviewed dozens of girls over several years.
Cedar County prosecutor Ty Gaither requested the attorney general’s help with the case in mid-November, saying his county did not have the resources to handle the case on its own. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson directed the attorney general’s office to assist with the investigation and possible prosecution.
Former students of the Cedar County school say the news brings relief and a realization that someone finally listened to them.
“I’m just so happy right now,” said Aimee Groves, who worked at Circle of Hope in early 2009 and was interviewed as part of a 2018 investigation by the Missouri Highway Patrol. “From trying for so long to get someone to investigate them to seeing they were finally arrested, it’s overwhelming. This is finally real.”
The property of the now closed school sits on 35 acres along Highway N about seven miles from Humansville in Cedar County.
Before opening Circle of Hope in 2006, the Householders lived in nearby Stockton, where Boyd Householder, now 71, worked at Agape Boarding School, a Christian home for troubled boys.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 10:38 AM.
