An Idaho couple has been charged in connection with the father’s suspected molestation of his four daughters over 16 years with the mother’s complicity, both blaming a demon for the attacks.
Lester Kester, 48, of Caldwell, Idaho, is charged with felonies in the sexual assaults on his children, while Sarah Kester, 50, is charged with one count of injury to a child. They were both jailed and face hearings July 26.
Both parents insisted to Canyon County Sheriff’s Office detectives that a demon had entered Mr. Kester, causing him to repeatedly molest the girls through the age of 12, with the attacks beginning in 2000.
The investigation began after the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Children and Family Services contacted the sheriff’s office June 21, informing detectives that one of the couple’s daughters had come forward, telling authorities she had been molested by her father as a child.
During follow-up interviews, two of Kester’s daughters told investigators they had been sexually abused by Lester, and reported that a third daughter had been as well. Detectives found evidence that a fourth daughter had also been sexually abused, as recently as 2016.
The sisters told detectives that they had confronted their mother, Sarah, about the abuse three years ago, but nothing happened.
In an interview with investigators, according to the sheriff’s office, Sarah Kester admitted she had known about the sexual abuse for 17 years, but did not report it because it was against her belief system to involve agencies like law enforcement, child-protection services, or counseling services into her family matters. Instead, she said, she prayed for “the demon” to leave her husband and tried to distract him with other tasks.
In a separate interview, Lester Kester also blamed a “bad guy” or a “demon” for his actions, according to the sheriff’s office, and admitted to molesting all four of his daughters until they reached the ages of ten or 12.