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Kach Family Lawyer Criticizes McKeesport Police

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Apr 13, 2006 8:05 pm US/Eastern

Kach Family Lawyer Criticizes McKeesport Police

by David Highfield
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Another twist in the saga of Tanya Kach, the woman who claims she was held captive in an older man's home for 10 years.

Now, the lawyer for the Kach family is speaking out - saying McKeesport police didn't do enough to find Kach when she disappeared.

Lawrence Fisher says more should have been done to find Tanya Kach when she disappeared ten years ago.

"I believe the police probe was bungled at best and I fear what it may have been at worst," said Fisher.

Kach was 14 year-old when she says, she ran away from home to live with 37-year-old Thomas Hose in his parent's home.

But she claims she was held captive there and that Hose sexually and mentally abused her.

Fisher told KDKA's David Highfield that the Kach family wants to know why then McKeesport police chief Michael Elias didn't focus on Hose who was a security guard at her school.

"If Mister Elias had simply put an officer on watch, a stakeout, in front of Hose's house within the first month of Tanya's disappearance surely they would have found her," said Fisher.

In an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Elias says no one came forward to say Kach was having a relationship with Hose and that there was no indication hose was involved in anything wrong.

But Fisher claims that many people saw Hose escort Kach to her classes and that they were often together in school.

Fisher added, "I understand that Tanya was a repeated runaway and so in that sense there may have been lax attention to her case by Elias - why he didn't focus on Hose is a mystery - profound and deep - it doesn't make any sense."

Fisher says the Kach family wants to see all papers concerning the police investigation from ten years ago.

They also want McKeesport school officials to release the findings of their current investigation of whether any staff members knew about the relationship between Hose and Kach.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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