Oklahoma man fathered NINE children with his stepdaughter after kidnapping her when she was 12
An Oklahoma man who kidnapped his 12-year-old stepdaughter and fathered nine children with her while keeping her hostage for nearly 20 years has now been sentenced to life in prison. The US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Oklahoma revealed in a news release how 65-year-old Henri Michelle Piette was convicted last year of kidnapping and traveling with intent to engage in sexual acts with a juvenile after he kidnapped 12-year-old Rosalynn McGinnis in 1997. According to the release, he had been in a relationship with her mother prior to the abduction.
Prosecutors detailed during the trial how Piette took the girl from her Poteau home and subjected her to “physical and emotional abuse” over the next two decades, Fox News reports. Rosalynn was just 15 years old when Henri reportedly began raping her in 2000. He would go on to have nine children with her.
Rosalynn opened up about the ordeal and recalled the harrowing details of how she was abducted by Piette from her school in Oklahoma because he wanted to get back at her mother who had broken up with him when he started physically assaulting her.
After he forced her to "marry" him, the couple lived together in a filthy tent in Mexico, undetected by US authorities for nearly two decades leading up to September 2017, when Piette was arrested — a year after McGinnis escaped and contacted police.
Piette moved the victim several times throughout the U.S. and Mexico while in captivity. During their travels, he would force Rosalynn to dye her hair, wear glasses, and use aliases in a bid to hide her identity. McGinnis, who is now in her 30s, was finally able to escape with eight of her children in July 2016, taking them straight to the US Consular General Offices in Nogales, Mexico.
“Life in prison is a sentence the law reserves for the most serious offenders – offenders like Henri Michelle Piette,” United States Attorney Brian J. Kuester said in a statement. “For 20 years he inflicted extreme physical and emotional abuse on the victim and her children. For 20 years she feared for her and her children’s lives.”
Special Agent Melissa Godbold, who is in charge of the FBI Oklahoma City Division, agreed.
“For over 20 years Henri Piette inflicted immeasurable harm upon his victims. We hope today’s sentencing provides closure to the victims and an opportunity to heal.”
Piette was required to pay a penalty of $50,000 and another $50,000 in restitution to the victim as part of his sentence. The victim was identified by NBC News as Piette's stepdaughter.