Kansas Father Charged with Murder, Incest, Mother gets Slap on Wrist

Out of Kansas comes the twisted story of a father who committed incest with his teenager daughter who then bore him 4 babies, three of whom are dead. The father, Danial “Danny” Rinehart, 47, was arraigned Friday in Cass County on several charges: endangering the welfare of a child, statutory rape, two counts of incest and two counts of accessory abandonment of a corpse. The mother of the teen girl was given a slap on the the wrist, with one count of endangering the welfare of a child. At the time of his arrest, Rinehart was in northwest Missouri along with his teen daughter and their 3-yr-old son.

According to the Kansas City Star, the mother of the girl was charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Just one count, even though she allegedly knew that her husband had impregnated their daughter and had even helped deliver each of the babies, one time in a truck. When the mother was asked why she continued to stay married to her husband she replied that she “wasn’t good enough to find someone else”.

At one point, Rinehart lived on his mother’s farm with his daughter in a camper trailer behind his mother’s house. During that period the girl had babies, three and four.

The couple had four daughters who were home-schooled. The family was reclusive while the father never managed to keep a job.

Of the four babies born to the man, one was born in 2004 and purportedly died when four months old. That baby was buried on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. The second child is now three. The third baby was born in 2006, on November 17.

The 15-month old boy died on February 28, 2007. The boy’s mother claims her son became ill and that neither of her parents sought medical help. After his death, she dressed him in blue and then put him in a blue cooler with his teddy bear and blanket. She sealed the lid with silicone, then placed the cooler in a hole she dug in the garage floor. During this period of time she became impregnated by her father again, this time the baby was stillborn.

Present at each of the births was the girl’s mother. She was also present when her daughter’s little boy became ill and died at 15 months. She was also the mother who knew her husband was raping her daughter yet chose to tell no one. Yet this woman, a mother of four daughters, has only been charged with one count of endangering a child.

Which made me wonder: which “child” has the mother been charged with “endangering”? Her daughter, whom she allowed her husband to rape and impregnate multiple times? Or the little 15-month-old boy who allegedly died because neither she nor her husband sought medical help? Wouldn’t this child’s death at least constitute a second degree or negligent homicide charge for the girl’s mother? Either way, it seems the mother has gotten off lightly. She admitted she knew what was going on yet didn’t try to stop it or contact authorities.

By LBG
Image – Scarecrow

Tags: incest, Kansas, murder