A rural Missouri boarding school at the center of abuse allegations has closed its doors, and a state agency is trying to determine whether it adequately responded to previous concerns about the facility by calling an abuse hotline.
The closure of ABM Ministries’ Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, Missouri, follows criminal charges filed earlier this month against owners Larry Musgrave Jr., 57, his 64-year-old wife, Carmen Musgrave, and a teacher, Caleb Sandoval, 22. The Musgraves were charged with first-degree kidnapping for allegedly locking a student in a room. Sandoval was charged with abuse or neglect of a child, accused of injuring a 15-year-old boy while boxing.
The Musgraves and Sandoval all face trial next month. Phone messages were left with their attorneys on Wednesday.
“As of March 6 at 5 p.m., ABM 2024 will be officially closed. All staff have also been laid off,” ABM wrote in a letter to the Missouri Department of Social Services. Agency spokeswoman Baylee Watts provided a copy of the letter to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Watts said in an email that the Ministry of Social Affairs is investigating “the handling of the complaints in Child Abuse & Neglect the hotline.” She has not elaborated or offered a timetable for the internal investigation. Former ABM students have indicated that they have been expressing their concerns for years, to no avail.
ABM Ministries operated the private Christian boarding school for boys in Wayne County, about 129 miles (209 kilometers) south of St. Louis. The website claimed success in helping boys who were struggling, had learning difficulties, or were dealing with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or other disorders. The website is now closed.
Sheriff Dean Finch began investigating several months ago after a former Alabama student contacted him. The Musgraves are accused of keeping the student locked in a small room against her will nearly 20 years ago, at a time when the school served both girls and boys.
The alleged victim in that case, Juliana Davis, now 34, said the school’s closure is “empowering” and something she had hoped for since her college days.
“Every day we woke up there, we hoped that someone would come in and shut it down and keep us safe,” said Davis, who now works as a trauma therapist. “Of course that never happened. But knowing that I played a part in giving that to the guys that were there, that was a really, really cool feeling.
Finch said his office received reports of five runaways from the school in the first few months of this year. In one case, two boys were picked up by a local resident and taken home. The boys asked her to call 911.
A 2009 federal lawsuit accusing a former principal of sex acts with a female student also alleged that the Musgraves took no action to protect the girl. Court records show that ABM Ministries and the Musgraves agreed to pay $750,000 in settlement, and the client agreed to pay $100,000.
A probable cause statement said Sandoval bled a 15-year-old’s nose. Sandoval initially told investigators he taught the boy how to box in preparation for a Mixed Martial Arts camp. But he later said the sparring occurred about a week after the boy made sexual comments about Sandoval and his wife, the affidavit said.
The charges are the latest against people associated with Christian boarding schools in Missouri.
Agape Boarding School in Stockton, Missouri, closed in 2023 after years of investigations and allegations of physical and sexual abuse. Allegations of abuse at Agape and the nearby Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch led to a state law in 2021 requiring stricter regulations for such facilities. Missouri previously had virtually no oversight of religious boarding schools.
Criminal cases are still pending against Agape’s former doctor and five other employees. The former owners of Circle of Hope will appear in court in November on 100 counts of child abuse. They have pleaded not guilty.