Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle
January 2, 2010
TOWANDA — The mystery began here. In 1999, 11-year-old Adam Herrman disappeared from his adoptive parents' mobile home on the south side of town.
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But investigators didn't discover the boy had been missing until about a year ago — after his older, adoptive sister told authorities she was concerned about him...
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A year later, the mystery remains unsolved. Authorities say they continue to work on the case.
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In a recent interview, Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield said she expects to make a decision on charges within the next year. Nearly a year ago, she said Adam's adoptive parents were suspects in his disappearance. In some ways, Satterfield said, the case gets stronger with time. "There is no statute of limitations on murder,'' she said...
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Satterfield said that within the next year, she expects to file charges or submit the case to a grand jury so it could consider bringing indictments.
She declined to say what charges might be filed...
Warner Eisenbise, the lawyer who represents Adam's adoptive mother, Valerie Herrman...
Laura Shaneyfelt, lawyer for Adam's adoptive father, Doug Herrman...
The Herrmans continue to assert that they are innocent, their lawyers say.
In an interview with The Eagle last January, Valerie Herrman, then 52, said that in early May 1999, when Adam was 11, he ran away from their Towanda mobile home and didn't return after she spanked him with a belt. She said she didn't report him missing because she feared it would cause her and her husband to lose custody of Adam and their other children.
Relatives said that Valerie Herrman told them that Adam, who was being home-schooled, was no longer at home because he had been returned to state custody...
Adam's biological father, Irvin Groeninger...thinks authorities are doing everything they can. He said he hopes that charges will be filed. "I'm hoping that there will be justice served on this." And he said he would welcome renewed media attention on the case.
....Court records show that the Herrmans continued to list Adam as a dependent in court documents. Valerie Herrman told The Eagle that they continued to accept $700 monthly adoption subsidy payments for Adam until his 18th birthday in 2005 — six years after he disappeared. Adam would be 22 now...
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