Amish in disbelief over parents accused of 'gifting' girl
Kaplan is now charged with statutory sexual assault, and the teen's parents with child endangerment, in a case that has sent shock waves through the Amish community some 75 miles away.
When a person can't handle things, they do radical things, said a family friend who, like other Amish interviewed by The Associated Press, did not want to be seen as violating a cultural taboo against seeking attention and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The couple almost entirely withdrew from the Amish community, cutting ties with their parents even though they lived next door to his mother and father and just a few miles from her family's Lancaster County farm.
Last week, police and child welfare workers descended on the home after neighbors in Bucks County became concerned about the welfare of several girls they saw living there.
"Not only is (Kaplan) given a 14-year-old, but, from a pedophile predator's point of view, the idea of multiple other children of younger ages who, at some point, will be the age that makes them targets is a dream," Heckler said.
Court records do not list an attorney for Daniel Stoltzfus or for Kaplan, who sold model train decals online and operated a metal fabricating business with Stoltzfus.