Mother, girls lived in fear for six years
Burton – Two girls and their mother spent six years in constant fear, hiding from a devil worshipper who had allegedly raped the girls hundreds of times while he baby-sat them.
Hopscotching around Genesee County, the mother yanked her daughters out of schools and moved at least four times after David Lindensmith, 40, used county records to find their new address.
The final straw came on Halloween when the family received an anonymous “Friday the 13th” videotape depicting two sisters being killed.
Fearful that Lindensmith would kill them, the girls finally went to police and detailed a horrific story of molestation that began in 1992 when they were 4 and 6 years old.
The girls, now 14 and 16, told police that at one point Lindensmith pointed a semi-automatic pistol at them and threatened to kill them if they went to police.
“He robbed these girls of their youthful innocence,” said Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell.
Pickell said Lindensmith met the girls in 1992 when he became their mother’s boyfriend for a short time.
The girls told their mother of the alleged assaults in 1997, but the mother didn’t go to police because she feared reprisals from Lindensmith, Pickell said.
The mother pulled the girls from several different schools during their moves around the county, but each time, Pickell said, Lindensmith would find them.
Police arrested Lindensmith last week on six counts of sexual assault. He is being held in the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for today before District Judge Christopher Odette.
A search of Lindensmith’s Bergin Avenue home turned up 300 DVDs and four computer hard drives with images of child pornography, Pickell said.
Investigators have not determined if Lindensmith has pornographic images of local children.
One video, however, showed Lindensmith masturbating as he watched a child play outside his window.
Police also found satanic cult items in his house, along with books they said he used to cast evil spells on people.
Lindensmith’s attorney, Marc Lakin, declined comment this morning.
Neighbors said Lindensmith would sometimes run naked through his south Burton neighborhood.
“He’d stay in his house for days and days and then his mother would bring him groceries. I’ve seen him run out into the street naked, breaking plates and leaving them for us to clean up. Just very, very different. I had no idea (about the assault charges),” said one neighbor who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The neighbor said she noticed glowing lights from Lindensmith’s home at all hours of the day and night.
“He’d be on that computer for days, it seems,” she said. “The UPS truck would deliver computer stuff there at all hours of the day and night.”
Lindensmith has been unemployed since 1995, police have said. He worked for a short while at a nearby gas station.
Carol Davis has lived across the street from Lindensmith for about five years and hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
“I don’t bother anyone and no one has bothered me,” she said. “I’d see him outside now and then, but I didn’t think he was a bad person. I’m truly surprised and I feel real bad. It goes against our religion.”