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American Morning

Idaho Standoff: Neighbor Discusses Troubled Family

Aired May 31, 2001 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look now at one of our top stories. And that is coming out of Idaho, where authorities say they're looking for a peaceful way to end a standoff with a group of children.

Right now, six children are holed up in the family home. The standoff began Tuesday when their mother was arrested and charged with felony injury to a child. Authorities say the children, whose father is dead, have been caring for themselves for the last year.

Joining us now from Garfield Bay, Idaho -- which is very close to the situation where we're talking about -- is Mary Peters. She's says she is a friend of the family.

Mary, thanks for joining us.

MARY PETERS, FRIEND OF FAMILY: Oh, you're mighty welcome.

KAGAN: What can you tell us about this family? Is this a family that has faced increasing problems over the years?

PETERS: Oh, yes, definitely. They have. Their father has been very sick. He's gotten worse and worse. He has -- he had multiple sclerosis. And the mother had to look after the father and the children and try to run the home. She continually got more paranoid and wanted to get away from people. She was afraid for the children and afraid any food or anything that would be brought in would be dangerous.

KAGAN: So there was a point when nice neighbors like you were trying to help out and had contact with the family.

PETERS: Yes.

KAGAN: But that has gone down over the years.

PETERS: Yes. Yes. We tried to make contact with the police and the welfare and the church. But everyone was afraid to go there because of the dogs and because maybe we'd be met with a shotgun. And we were very unwelcome. We were helpless.

KAGAN: So was there a certain point where this woman said to you and to the other neighbors who were trying to help, "Just stay out; we want to be by ourselves"? PETERS: Yes, she just -- she told me, you know, "Don't call back. I don't want you to call back. I just want to end this."

KAGAN: How isolated...

PETERS: "And end it with you."

KAGAN: How isolated is the area where the family lives?

PETERS: Yes.

Oh, it's very isolated. Neighbors live very far away from each other. And you can't even see up their road to see what's going on. You can't see the home road from the Garfield cutoff road or anything.

KAGAN: So it wouldn't be the kind of situation where, over the years, you could drive by and just check on and see how the kids are doing? These -- this family really...

PETERS: You can't do that from where you are at. You cannot do that. You can see their mailbox, but you cannot peek over there. I've seen JoAnn's truck over there...

KAGAN: And she kept...

PETERS: ... you know, parked away from the house.

KAGAN: She kept the younger kids out of school?

PETERS: Yes -- well, they were home schooled, supposedly. But I don't know how well they were educated or what they were educated in. But she was supposedly home schooling them. She didn't want them in the schools being influenced by anyone -- any outsiders.

KAGAN: Now, one of the -- I think the oldest child has left the home. What do you know about that?

PETERS: That's what I have heard. I heard Dan (ph) left.

KAGAN: So you don't know specifically...

PETERS: And he...

KAGAN: ... about that.

What about -- we're hearing about this pack of dogs, supposedly, that live among the family.

PETERS: Oh, my.

KAGAN: What was known? What was believed to be the situation with the pack of dogs with people like you who live in that area?

PETERS: It's very bad with the dogs. At first, they only had a few dogs. And now I've heard that it's escalated to 27 dogs. Back when we knew them years ago, they only had, like, five dogs. And we were afraid of them then. They used to nip at our tires when we would drive up and surround the car and run in front of the car. I would think: Well, I am going to run over one of them trying to get away.

But, anyway, we were very afraid of the dogs. I have a friend that was bit by one of the dogs trying to go over there to help. She was going to help look after the children. And the -- one of the dogs bit her. And then JoAnn had nothing to do with her after that. The lady had to go to the hospital.

KAGAN: What do you think the future holds for the kids?

PETERS: Well, I hope that the kids can get help and be talked out of that and know we're not their enemies. We all love them over here. They have a lot of people that care about them here. And I hope they can realize that we're not trying to do bad to them. We're trying to help them.

And we don't want to split their family up. We want their family to have help. And I think the children are afraid of being split up.

KAGAN: Understandable. There's a lot of fears within that family and within the community right now.

Mary Peters in Garfield Bay, thanks for joining us today.

PETERS: You're mighty welcome. And you have a good day. I hope these children get some help. That's why I'm on here.

KAGAN: We will continue to cover the story. Thanks for your insight into the community and also to the help that the community would like to give this family. Thanks for joining us.

And, once again, we have heard that authorities are trying to let the situation cool off, as the children are holed up inside this home in Sandpoint, Idaho. We will continue to follow the story and bring you the latest.

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