KANE – The 17-year old Amish girl found by local police four
days after she was reported missing from Crawford County was
strolling along Kushequa Road when she was located Sunday.

Mary Gingerich was in good physical condition and in the company
of a cousin when police spotted her, according to Trooper Mark
Klaiber of the Kane-based state police.

Kushequa Road is outside the Borough of Mount Jewett.

Edward Gingerich, who had brought his daughter to the area,
served prison time for killing his wife, Mary Gingerich’s mother,
in 1993. He reportedly killed his 29-year old wife, Katie, in a
religious-toned “schizophrenic frenzy,” related to her intent to
attend a wedding without him. Reports indicate she was disemboweled
with a kitchen knife.

Based on a tip from the public, Edward Gingerich was taken into
police custody about 10 minutes before troopers spotted the teen,
and was in the patrol car when they found her.

“He said ‘She’s out for a walk,'” Klaiber told The Era.

“I am not sure why they would come to this area,” he said,
adding they were working on an abandoned house along Kushequa
Road.

There are no charges pending against Edward Gingerich in McKean
County.

In Crawford County, however, he has been charged with criminal
conspiracy to conceal the whereabouts of a child, was arraigned in
Titusville and committed to the Crawford County Jail, Saegertown,
in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Two of his brothers, Joseph Gingerich, 43, and Atlee Gingerich,
44, have been charged in connection to Mary Gingerich’s
disappearance, for allegedly locking the girl in a barn just prior
to her being reported missing. They are being held at Crawford
County Jail on a $30,000 bond each.

Until she went missing early last week, Mary Gingerich had been
in the custody of her paternal grandparents, Dan and Mary
Gingerich, since her mother was killed. At last report, she was
being returned to her grandparents’ home.

After Katie Gingerich’s murder, Edward Gingerich served five
years in a state prison and was released in 1998. Reports indicate
he lived in a Mennonite halfway house from the time of his release
until recently, when he was asked to leave. It was unclear why he
was asked to leave the community.