Logan couple locked woman in crawl space ‘off and on’ for a decade, charges say

LOGAN, Utah (KSL.com) — A Logan couple is facing criminal charges accusing them of subjecting their daughters to physical and emotional abuse for over a decade.

Jimmy Dean Stewart, 49, and Jean Elizabeth Stewart, 48, were charged last week with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and two counts of stalking, a third-degree felony. Jean Stewart is also charged with violation of a protective order, a class A misdemeanor.

An investigation began in earnest in May when Logan police interviewed the Stewarts’ 28-year-old daughter, who said the couple had been subjecting her and her 30-year-old sister to abuse since before they moved to Logan in 2011, forcing her to flee the house last year.

The younger woman said her parents had withheld her phone, medications and clothing, beat her, and at one point locked the windows and doors to the family house to prevent her from leaving, holding her hostage for over 48 hours, police booking affidavits state.

When police spoke to the older sister, they observed “bruises around the neck and scratch marks,” the affidavits say. She “described being tied to chairs after her parents thought she was possessed,” and said they “would frequently lock her in the basement with no food,” and her mother stabbed her with knives and forks.

An investigator wrote that the woman “was able to point to each scar and tell me whether it was from a fork, knife, spoon, etc.”

The older sister said her parents kept the money she made from working and charged her $500 a month to live in a hallway of the home, the affidavits state. The couple only homeschooled her to the level of a seventh grader, according to charging documents.

Investigators went to the house where the older sister was allegedly locked in the basement frequently. They reported finding a hatch in the floor of the pantry, “a dilapidated staircase leading to the crawl space under the house” with a lock on the outside of the door. The area was damp, with a single light bulb hanging from rafters covered in spiderwebs, “dirt floor with exposed rock, earth and insulation,” “an air freshener, and two folding chairs,” the affidavits state.

The older sister told police that for about 10 years, “she spent most of her time in the basement,” the charges allege.

Protective orders against both parents were granted for the daughters in August. Police assisted the younger daughter in gathering her personal property from the couple’s house, but police say Jean Stewart began screaming at the woman, in violation of the no contact condition of the protective order.

In an interview, Jimmy Stewart admitted to putting the older daughter in the basement and taking her money with her permission to make car payments, but said “everyone was lying about the abuse to get back at Jean and him,” the court documents state. “Jean also stated everyone was lying,” and neither parent knew why the younger daughter did not want a relationship with them, or why the older daughter fled.