Oxford News

Extras

Photos

Carolynn 'Carrie' HatcherClick to enlarge

Carolynn Hatcher was employed as a housemom and teacher at Mid-Western Children's Home in Pleasant Plain when sh allegedly had a two-month affair with a 16-year-old Middletown boy under her care.Click to enlarge

LEBANON — A married teacher and housemom at a Christian group home was arrested Monday, July 14, on six counts of sexual battery after she allegedly became pregnant by a 16-year-old Middletown boy under her care.

Carolynn Hatcher, 25, allegedly carried on a two-month affair with the boy at Mid-Western Children's Home in Pleasant Plain, said Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel.

Now, the boy is missing after he ran away from his foster father during a trip to get ice cream Sunday, said Michael Fox, director of Butler County Children Services.

Children Services is working with law enforcement to locate the boy, but the agency is unable to release his name or photograph because of state laws protecting foster children and child sex abuse victims, Fox said.

The agency first learned of the allegations against Hatcher on July 3 and moved the boy into a Fairfield foster home on July 11.

Hatcher, who was indicted last week, worked at the home with her husband for a year before she was fired in June after another child living at the home reported the relationship, Hutzel said.

The boy's parents signed over custody to the county in 2004 after officials learned he had been abused by his father. "Now he's victimized again," Fox said.

The group home, affiliated with the Church of Christ, serves emotionally disturbed children ages 6 to 18.

"We take the safety of the children in our care very seriously," said Administrator Barry Boverie, who called the abuse an "isolated" incident in the home's 41-year history.