Rivae, 49, liked to tend to her garden and often initiated lengthy discussions with the neighbors she saw outside.
The three boys in the home routinely played with the neighbors’ kids.
From the outside looking in, there were clues but no obvious alarm bells about what allegedly took place inside 4825 Hassan Circle, Apartment 6.
The allegations — that for six years the Harts imprisoned Rivae’s 9-year-old granddaughter in their home — shocked the community.
“I’m shocked, too,” said Geraldine Pegues, assistant director of the Children Services division of Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services. “It disheartens me that something like this has gone on for this length of time.”
Since the Harts gained custody about six years ago, much of the girl’s life was spent in the tiny half-bath on the first floor, police say. The bathroom is considerably smaller than the 13-by-8-feet segregation cells at the Dayton Correctional Institution.
Yet the girl did well in school and was on the honor roll virtually every quarter. “I am amazed at her resilience under the circumstances,” police Sgt. Larry Tolpin said.
The Harts are facing felony charges of kidnapping and child endangering. If convicted, they could spend up to 15 years in prison.
Their arrests beg the question: How did this go unnoticed by so many for so long?
“We can all look back and say, ‘Well, you should have, could have, would have,’ ” said Libby Nicholson, director of CARE House, a child advocacy center that works with victims of the most severe cases of child abuse and neglect in Montgomery County. Nicholson wouldn’t comment on the specifics of this case because it is still open and under investigation, but said some cases of child abuse “really fly under the radar. Despite the best intentions and all the training in the world, situations are missed and bad things happen to children.”
No record
Former neighbor Shelli Ridge, 24, tried to call for help years ago. As a premed student at Wright State University, Ridge lived next door to the Harts and said she often heard commotion in the home and suspected child abuse.
Ridge, who will soon graduate from Ohio University’s medical school, said she confronted Rivae Hart about it and twice called 911. However, a search of the Dayton police information system found no record of Ridge’s calls.
“I called police,” she said. “It could have been much less (time in captivity) if someone had followed through with my phone calls.”
Children Services officials said they had no case on the Harts until the school nurse the girl confided in contacted the county agency on Jan. 18, thus starting the investigation that led to the Harts’ arrests on Jan. 27.
Both police and Children Services say that they are still trying to find the girl’s biological parents — and aren’t even sure of their names.
Although police were told the Harts gained custody through a children’s services agency in Virginia, they don’t know exactly where, Tolpin said. Neighbors said Rivae claimed the children had been abandoned by their parents.
The Harts also have little history with the criminal justice system, according to records in area municipal and common pleas courts.
They were investigated in 1998 after their 2-year-old biological son arrived at Children’s Medical Center with seizures and minor bruising, but no charges were filed.
Rivae Hart told neighbors she was raised in California, and records show her Social Security number was issued there. Brian Hart’s was issued in Wisconsin. A sister of Brian Hart in Marshall, Wis., declined comment. So did the Harts. Neighbors said that they were told that Brian Hart served in the U.S. Air Force, and a record check shows possible past addresses at Air Force bases in Texas and California.
Neighbors at the Woodman Park Apartments, where the Harts have lived since at least 1998, said the family was approachable, and the boys were often seen outside, playing with other children. But they rarely saw the girl.
“I only saw her once or twice,” said Franklin Matthews, who has lived next door since last June.
‘She was a wildcat’
Matthews said his stepson often played with the Hart boys, and even slept over regularly.
He said he asked the boys about the girl’s whereabouts, but “nobody would give you an answer. I thought about that more than once.”
Tim and Jenny Hungling, who have lived behind the Harts since 2005, said years ago Rivae Hart brought the girl over to play with their daughters, and they remember her as being active.
“She was a wildcat,” Tim Hungling said. “She didn’t let any grass grow under her feet.”
They said they barely saw her the last couple of years. One day last fall, they said, she was outside playing in the leaves. Last fall, Rivae Hart told Jenny Hungling she was having a hard time controlling the girl. She tore up her mattress, Rivae Hart told her neighbor, and when they got her a Barbie bed she tore that up as well. Jenny Hungling said she remembers Rivae Hart telling her the girl was sleeping on a towel on a hallway floor.
They said they also heard the parents shouting at the children. “I’ve heard her screaming at the kids,” Tim Hungling said. “It was vulgar language and everything.”
Added Jenny: “I heard Brian more than Rivae.”
Franklin Matthews’ wife, Gloria, said Rivae told her that her own mother used to beat her, describing the abuse in graphic detail. Yet Gloria never suspected that the girl was a victim of abuse, even though she rarely saw her.
“I just assumed she liked to play in the house,” she said.
Few of the neighbors ever saw the inside of the apartment. Rivae Hart told Gloria Matthews the house was too messy for company. Last year, when the Harts left town for a family reunion, they gave the Hunglings a key and asked them to feed their cat, Shadow.
“They were hoarders,” Jenny Hungling said. “I took two steps in and was ready to take two steps out.”
Tim Hungling said he noticed a dresser inside a small hallway blocking the way to the first-floor bathroom. He said he was curious enough about it that he returned with a digital camera, held it above the dresser and snapped a few shots of the area behind the dresser. The photographs didn’t turn out, he said.
Cats well cared for
It took two trips for Humane Society of Greater Dayton investigators to round up all the cats in the Harts’ unoccupied, cluttered apartment.
Besides Shadow, the Harts had brought three other strays into their home during the January cold snap, said Sharon Exline, animal cruelty investigator. One had seven kittens since the Harts’ arrests.
Tolpin, the Dayton police sergeant, said the girl was undernourished and her meals “inconsistent at best.”
Yet the cats appeared to be well-fed: “Those animals were extremely healthy, even the stray ones,” Exline said.
Well-behaved
Tolpin said the Harts had concerns about the psychological well-being of the child when she was 3 years old, and had her examined by a psychologist. The psychologist, he said, concluded the girl’s actions were normal for a 3-year-old.
School officials remember a well-behaved girl who showed up on the school bus every morning.
“There were never any disciplinary problems here with her whatsoever,” said Shawna Welch, principal of Wright Brothers PreK-8 School at Grant where the child attended since kindergarten. The fourth-grader had made the honor roll each quarter since first grade except for the last one, Welch said.
“She was a very personable child, which is surprising when you understand what she lived in,” Welch said. Both the girl and her brother were enrolled in the free breakfast and lunch program at the school, Welch said. Children Services withdrew them from the school after they were placed in foster care along with the two older boys.
The Harts are due in court this week for a hearing. They pleaded not guilty to the charges, both felonies, on Feb. 8.
Police say the Harts corroborated key parts of the girl’s story.
Ridge, the former neighbor who suspected there was abuse going on in the home, was moved to learn how well the girl was doing in school.
“I hope this is a turning point in her life,” she said.
Ridge, her sister and their mother, Lori Wulf of Miamisburg, want to open a college fund for the girl and have contacted a local bank.
“For her to get ahead in life and break this cycle, she needs to be educated,” said Wulf, a registered nurse at Miami Valley Hospital. “She had a really rough start but it doesn’t have to be that way. It can get better.”
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