23
March
BAPTIST MINISTER CONVICTED OF ABUSE
The Reverend Joseph Combs, a Baptist minister and his wife, Evangeline, were convicted of abusing a girl they took from an orphanage and raised as the family servant. They were also convicted of kidnapping, among other charges. The girl, Esther Combs, was taken as a baby from an Indiana orphanage in 1978, she was considered kidnapped because the couple took her with the pretense to adopt her, but never did. Esther, now 22 and living in another state under a different name, testified that Mrs. Combs beat her with baseball