By  Seamus McGraw   

April 5, 2006

advertisement

MCKEESPORT, Pa. (Crime Library) —  Judith Sokol, the 57-year-old hairdresser who allegedly helped change a young runaway's appearance and, in so doing, contributed to the girl's decade-long captivity, will have one more day before she has to show up in court.

Judy Sokol

Sokol, who has denied any knowing role in the bizarre events surrounding Tanya Kach's disappearance in 1996, or in what authorities have alleged is Kach's virtual imprisonment for a decade in the home of Thomas Hose, a security guard charged with repeatedly molesting Kach, was due to appear in court today.

But authorities at the last minute rescheduled that hearing. According to a report in the Daily News of McKeesport, the Allegheny County district attorney's office requested the delay so that a child abuse expert could be present. As it now stands, both Sokol and Hose will make their initial appearances on Thursday.

Telephone calls the district attorney's office were not immediately returned.

Thomas John Hose

Hose, who also has denied the allegations through his attorney, remained under virtual house arrest in the same McKeesport home where he allegedly kept Kach prisoner from the time she was 14 until she surfaced last month.

According to court documents, Hose, then a man in his late thirties, began a relationship with the then-eighth grader while he worked as a security guard at her school.

Within a few months of the beginning of the relationship, the young girl allegedly agreed to run away from home, and ultimately moved in with Hose in the home where he lived with his parents. Authorities have alleged that Hose, who kept the girl's existence a secret even from his own parents, not only repeatedly sexually assaulted her, but forced her to write down detailed reports of their sexual encounters so he could, as she told authorities, "brag" to his friends and co-workers.

Sokol, according to court papers, allegedly assisted in the conspiracy when she, knowing that authorities and the girl's family were searching for her, agreed to cut and dye the teen's hair so that she would not recognized. Authorities also have alleged that Sokol permitted Hose and the girl to use her house for sexual trysts during the first month after Kach's disappearance. Later, when investigators from the state's child welfare agency contacted her as part of their probe into Kach's disappearance, Sokol allegedly cut off contact with Hose and Kach. She did not, however, provide the investigators with any information that could have helped locate the girl, authorities have alleged.

Next Page

For more daily crime news

See Full Coverage of Tanya Kach Case