HUMANSVILLE, Mo.- The daughter of Boyd and Stephanie Householder, owners of Circle of Hope, has spoken out after the news of her parents’ arrest.

Boyd and Stephanie were arrested Tuesday and are being held in Vernon County. The Householders have been charged with 102 felonies between them.

The Circle of Hope facility, just a few miles off of Highway 13 on N Highway, came into the light back in August of 2020 when 24 girls were removed from the reformatory boarding school after several allegations of abuse came forward.

Amanda Householder says she was in disbelief when she found out about their arrest.

“I got a phone call from someone telling me they were arrested, and I was like ‘this is not happening, did that really happen?'”

She said she told her two sons about it, and they were a mix of happy and sad about the news.

“When I found out it was true, I can put it this way. When I told my kids that their grandparents were arrested, my oldest son was happy because of everything that happened, he doesn’t know the extent, but he does know how hard we’ve been working. But my youngest son looks at him and goes, ‘but that’s my grandparents.’ That right there is my feeling like I’m happy, but they’re my parents, so at the same time I’m sad. I don’t know how to explain it,” said Amanda.

Her biggest question is why it took nearly ten years to start investigating Circle of Hope.

She says now there is a social media group of women who lived at Circle of Hope when they were young; that group has around 50-60 members. Right now, there are four women with lawsuits against the Householders.

Amanda did reach out to some of the women, and they were in as much disbelief.

“We’re happy to be here. I’m happy that my parents are being held accountable, but I feel like the people who should’ve done something sooner need to be held accountable and need to be looked into. It’s insane that it took this long,” says Amanda.