Four family members related to Serah Bellar, who was reported missing on April 3 last year at the age of 16, were indicted by an Athens County Grand Jury on Tuesday.Â
Robert, 54, and Deborah Bellar, 49, of Athens, parents of Serah Bellar and 17 other children, are charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony, and two charges of endangering children, both third-degree felonies.Â
The endangering children charges list Serah Bellar and another child as victims.Â
âThe Bellar family formed an enterprise in order to maintain control in the home, their cult-like beliefs based on their religious following, and caused physical, emotional, and psychological harm to their children,â their indictments, filed on May 18, state.Â
May 19, 2021
Four members of a family from Athens County are facing charges related to sexually abusing multiple children between 2008 and 2016. Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn announced yesterday that a victim who went missing in 2020 had resurfaced and alerted police. Fifty-four-year-old Robert Bellar and 49-year-old Deborah Bellar face counts of corrupt activity and endangering children, while 24-year-old Josiah and 26-year-old Jonathan are facing gross sexual imposition charges, with Josiah also charged with rape. Deborah Bellar has been taken into custody, and a nationwide arrest warrant has been issued for Robert Bellar.