Divers search a lake for three missing people, Monday, Nov. 15, 2010, in Mount Vernon, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)
GALLERIES
Ohio Missing Family
Teenager's mother and brother, along with a friend of her mother's, remained missing Tuesday.
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MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - An Ohio man accused of keeping a 13-year-old girl bound and gagged in his basement spent six years in a Colorado prison for setting a fire to cover up a burglary and had been released from parole only a month ago.
The teenager's mother and brother, along with a friend of her mother's, remained missing Tuesday after authorities searched a lake and park near the suspect's home. Authorities offered little hope that they would be found alive but planned to continue their search.
Matthew J. Hoffman has been held at the Knox County jail since his Sunday arrest on a kidnapping charge.
He appeared in Mount Vernon Municipal Court on Tuesday through a video link from the jail, where he was wearing a green sleeveless shirt that revealed muscular arms. He mostly stared straight ahead, and yawned at one point.
He did not enter a plea. The judge set bond at $1 million and assigned a public defender to represent Hoffman. Authorities said more charges were expected.
Police on Sunday rescued 13-year-old Sarah Maynard from the basement of Hoffman's home, then began a search of a nearby lake for Maynard's mother, 32-year-old Tina Herrmann; the woman's 10-year-old son, Kody Maynard; and her 41-year-old friend, Stephanie Sprang.
It wasn't clear how well Hoffman, 30, knew the four, but county Sheriff David Barber suggested the defendant had been watching them.
"They knew Hoffman or Hoffman made himself known to them; he acquainted himself with the family whether they knew he was acquainting himself with them or not," Barber said Monday at a news conference at which he said it was possible "that these folks are dead."
Sprang's father, Steve Thompson, said Tuesday morning that he's staying optimistic.
"We know they are alive and we will find them eventually," Thompson said in an interview with CBS' "The Early Show," expressing hope that the three are tied up somewhere and will soon free themselves and resurface.
Hoffman was sitting nearby last week when police recovered the missing family's truck in central Ohio, Barber said.
His mother and stepfather live less than a mile away from Herrmann's home in a lakeside community about 40 miles north of Columbus. Hoffman last lived there two years ago, his mother said.
Thompson said he did not know Hoffman and had no idea how he became connected with his daughter and Herrmann.
"I don't think either one of the girls would have been really talking with him or just hanging out with him," Thompson said on NBC's "Today."
Hoffman was sentenced to eight years in prison in Colorado in 2001 for arson and other charges.
The Steamboat Pilot & Today of Steamboat Springs, Colo., reported Tuesday that he pleaded guilty to setting a fire to cover up a burglary he had committed the day before at a town house where he had installed some plumbing fixtures. The fire destroyed two town houses, damaged eight others and forced the evacuation of 16 people.
"I just want to say that I did have concern for the people in the condos," Hoffman said at his sentencing, according to the newspaper. "Now that I think back about it, I would not have done it."
Authorities allowed Hoffman to move to Ohio in 2007 after he was released on parole, which ended about a month ago. He had paid about $4,800 toward $2.06 million in restitution, Colorado court system spokesman Jon Sarche said.
Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher referred to the Colorado case when arguing for the $1 million bond.
"Based on the seriousness of the charges, the fact the defendant _ he's only recently returned from Colorado _ and other than his mother and stepfather has minimal ties to Knox County, he presents a flight risk," Thatcher said.
Public Defender Bruce Malek argued that Hoffman owns real estate in the county, has a father and sister in northeast Ohio and is employed as a tree trimmer, but it's seasonal work. "He is not currently employed, but he does have business connections here in Knox County," he said.
A message seeking further comment was left for Malek on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities first questioned Hoffman on Thursday, the day after Herrmann failed to show up for work at Dairy Queen. Police found him sitting in his car near a bike trail opposite property owned by Kenyon College, near where Herrmann's pickup truck was found, Barber said.
The sheriff didn't say what later led investigators to Hoffman's two-story, tan-sided house. Authorities spent Monday scouring bike paths and riverbanks. A search team pulled a car and an SUV from a lake near Hoffman's home, but investigators say they're not likely related to the disappearances.
Barber declined to comment on whether Sarah was assaulted or the details of her capture. She was released from a hospital and was staying with relatives.
"She is a very brave little girl," Barber said. "Under the circumstances, a 13-year-old girl being held captive for four days by a total stranger ... I would call her the epitome of bravery."
At the Columbus home of the girl's paternal grandmother, Patricia Baker, a younger woman answered the door on Tuesday and declined to comment.
June Chadwell, 66, who said she had lived across the street from Baker for 37 years, said she had seen no sign of the girl but said the child's father, Larry Maynard, lived at the home with Baker and that he was seen sitting on a deck outside the home on Monday.
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Associated Press writers Doug Whiteman, JoAnne Viviano and Anne Sanner in Columbus, John Seewer in Toledo, and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report.
