exposing the dark side of adoption
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Police say toenails, pliers found in RV

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Citrus couple faces aggravated child abuse charges

MIKE BRANOM

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ocala Star-Banner

INVERNESS - Pliers and what appeared to be pieces of toenails or fingernails were found by detectives searching a motor home belonging to a couple accused of torturing five of their adopted children, authorities said Friday.

The evidence found in the motor home in Polk County south of here corroborates what the children told detectives, said Gail Tierney, a spokeswoman for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office - the lead investigative agency working the case.

Five of their seven adopted teenage children told authorities the couple routinely tortured and starved them.

"As far as the interviews with the children, they had made references to the pliers and where they could be found in the motor home," Tierney said. "We thought the pliers were pertinent to our case."

Authorities planned to submit the nails to a lab analysis to see if they matched those of the children.

The motor home was found Thursday night at Deer Creek RV Golf Resort near Davenport, which is 65 miles east of Tampa. Inverness is about the same distance north of Tampa.

John and Linda Dollar have agreed to extradition from Utah, where they each were arrested on a Florida charge of a single count of aggravated child abuse.

Prosecutors said they planned to add an additional four counts of aggravated child abuse to Linda Dollar's charge and an additional five counts for John Dollar when they are returned to Florida.

The children told authorities that the Dollars pulled out toenails with pliers, hit them with a hammer, administered electrical shocks and forced them to sleep in a closet at night. The children ranged in age from 12 to 17 and lived with the Dollars and John Dollar's elderly mother in a secluded home in the Citrus County town of Beverly Hills.

The children have since been placed in foster care.

Two of the Dollars children were not abused, the sheriff's office has said.

2005 Feb 12