* He was convicted of raping adoptive mom; she divorced after havinganother man's child
By Margo Rutledge Kissell and Wes Wilson
COX NEWS SERVICEURBANA -- Kevin and Sue Neal led tumultuous lives even before their pathscrossed.
Kevin is a large, brooding man with tattoos on both arms and across hischest. He can be dangerous - in 1983, 17-year-old Kevin bound and raped hisadoptive mother, who had raised him since he was 18 months old. He's alsoaccused of sexual battery from 1995 and is in jail in Indiana awaiting atrial Monday.
Sue divorced her husband of 11 years in 1995 after another man fathered heryoungest child. Since two of her children disappeared more than two weeks ago,she has launched angry, foul-mouthed tirades at reporters keeping a constantvigil at her home. Last week she lunged at the two fathers of her children andhad to be restrained by Kevin.
Kevin and Sue met last September. They were introduced by Kevin's naturalmother, who dated Sue's ex-husband for a year.
They were married April 21 in a nighttime ceremony in a small Urbanachurch. Sue's 4-year-old son, Cody, dressed in his red-footed pajamas, was theonly witness.
`We knew we loved each other and knew we'd put our troubles behind us,'Kevin, 31, said.
They were wrong.
Cody, now 5, and his sister, India, 11, vanished July 9 from the Neals'Knight Road home. Four days of intensive searches turned up nothing.
Kevin, meanwhile, has been taken to jail. He faces a Monday trial on asexual battery charge for a 1995 incident involving a 24-year-old woman.During a pre-trial hearing last week, Marion County Criminal Court Judge CaleBradford abruptly raised his bond to $100,000, saying he failed to tell courtauthorities about his 1983 rape conviction.
Kevin has a telephone at the Marion County Jail. But he's said he hadtrouble placing collect calls to the Urbana area, keeping him from talking toChampaign County authorities or to his wife.
Sue's story
Sue Watkins Neal is a hometown girl. Now 33, she grew up in Urbana and attended Urbana City Schools. Shegraduated from Urbana High in the early 1980s and married Ricky Lee Smith in1983, when she was 19.
Their first daughter, India, was born two years later at Springfield'sCommunity Hospital. Another girl, Britney, was born 14 months later. In 1992,a baby boy named Cody was born.
Then known as Sue Smith, she worked at McAuley Center, an Urbana nursinghome, from 1992 to 1995, said her friend, Mary Gibson of Urbana. Sue continued her health-care career at Heartland of Springfield, 2615 DerrRoad, and recently left to take her current position at American Nursing Careof Springfield.
`She's a good parent,'' Gibson said. `If the kids wanted anything, she'dget it for them. She loves her kids dearly. She would do anything for herchildren, anything. If she had a couple of bucks in her pocket, the kids wouldhave the couple of bucks to get what they wanted.'
But the family's life was troubled.
Although Ricky Smith is listed as the father on all three of the children'sbirth certificates, a dispute erupted over Cody's paternity.
Court records have identified Gary McGraw of Marysville as Cody's father.Ricky Smith said that although Cody wasn't his boy, he loved him and acceptedhim to keep the family together.
That didn't happen. In January 1995, Sue filed for divorce, claiming Rickywas guilty of gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty toward her. She alsoindicated they lived apart for more than a year and were incompatible.
Smith counter-sued, claiming that she was guilty of gross neglect of dutyand extreme cruelty.
Smith won that battle. Sue ended up with visitation rights and was orderedto pay $51.60 a week in child support.
Even after Ricky Smith won custody of India and Britney, it was unclear whowould care for Cody.
The court ordered genetic testing. Squabbls over who was to pay delayed thereview of the tests from November 1995 to Feb. 4, 1997.
The court determined that McGraw was Cody's father. But Sue married Kevintwo months later and never publicly expressed an interest in McGraw.father.Kevin's story
Kevin Neal was adopted when he was 18 months old.
On his 18th birthday, he was in prison for raping his adoptive mother - andthat's where his birth mother found him again.
`I had searched for him for a long time with no avail, I mean nothing,''said Phyllis Amerson, 53, of Urbana. `When I found out he was in prison, Iwanted to see him. I wanted to see what he looked like. I did see him the restof his time in prison.'
Kevin grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Ind. Hisadoptive father was an electrical engineer for Magnavox.
In 1983, the 17-year-old high school junior attacked and raped his adoptivemother in their brick ranch-style home.
She accused him of grabbing her from behind and fondling her, according tocourt records from Allen County, Ind. He then tied her hands behind her back,laid her on the floor of the home and raped her.
Then he pedaled away on his bicycle.
Kevin pleaded guilty to rape Nov. 28, 1983, and was sentenced to 10 yearsin prison.
Kevin was released early from prison Aug. 25, 1989.
Three months later, he married Carol J. Keithley in Indiana. Keithley, then30, had been married once before. They lived in Indianapolis.
A son, Matthew, was born of the marriage, which lasted about seven years.
Kevin said he worked as a truck driver, and the strain of being on the roadhurt his marriage with Keithley. She could not be reached for comment.
As the marriage fizzled, Kevin got in legal trouble again. In December1995, he was accused of attacking a 24-year-old neighbor.
The woman told Marion County sheriff's deputies that Kevin came in her homeand pointed a gun at her.
Authorities said Kevin pushed her on the floor, tied her hands behind herback and her ankles together, and said he had been arrested for rape before,an investigator's affidavit shows.
He was charged with sexual battery, confinement and criminal recklessness.Eight days later, Keithley filed for divorce. The marriage was dissolved inJune 1996.
Keithley got custody of their son. Kevin was ordered to pay $75 a week inchild support.
The criminal charges against Kevin were dismissed in February 1997 after aMarion County judge rejected a prosecutor's request for a continuance.Love at first sight
Kevin Neal remembers well the day last September when he met his futurewife. He was starting to fashion a relationship with Amerson, his natural mother.He visited her that day at an elderly woman's home where Amerson was working.
Sue came for a visit with India and Britney. Her former husband, Ricky, haddated Amerson after his divorce and the children knew Neal's mother as `GrannyPhizz.'
`Sue pulled in with the two girls,' Kevin Neal said.
`I loved her personality. I loved her smile. We thought alike. On a lot ofthings we thought alike.'
He proposed last fall.
`I just felt the urge,' he said. `I asked her and she said `yes.' '
They were married at the Urbana Swedenborgian Church. Only four peopleattended- Kevin, Sue, the Rev. Susan Zion, and little Cody, who was dressed inhis red footed pajamas.
The couple didn't have rings for Cody to hold, Zion suggested that thesleepy child sign his name on a decorative marriage certificate the familycould keep.
He did, scrawling `Cody' in the way that little boys write.
Neal was a model father figure, Amerson said.
`He calls himself Mr. Mom,' she said. `He called me on the telephone at myworkplace and he'd tell me that `I'm making breakfast for the kids,' or `It'ssnack time,' or `The kids are doing this or that.' `I'm doing laundry,' thatsort of thing, and seemed happy to be doing it.'Shattered lives
A month after Sue and Kevin Neal married, Indiana authorities refiledcharges against Neal for the 1995 incident with his neighbor. Champaign Countysheriff's deputies arrested Neal at his Knight Road house.
He was in jail for a few days before being released on his ownrecognizance.
The day Cody and India disappeared, July 9, Sue Neal left for work at 6:30a.m. Accounts of events differ.
India was visiting the Neals that week. Kevin Neal said she and Cody playedin the side yard while he did dishes and laundry.
The children vanished while he was in the house, Neal said. He hasrepeatedly described to sheriff's deputies how he walked around the house anddown Knight Road, calling their names.
But farm workers nearby tell a different story. They've said they didn'tsee any children playing around that house in the late morning or earlyafternoon, and they didn't see Neal's frantic search.
They also told authorities that they saw a blue small or mid-sized car inthe Neal driveway the day the children vanished, and that the Neals' maroonPontiac was missing.
Neal disputes the story.
Neal's 911 call that day set off four days of intensive searching near therural house.
The FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation werecalled in to assist.
Their best lead seems to be a tip from a Greenville, Ohio, bakery outletclerk who said she talked to two children at the store July 9 who calledthemselves `India' and `Cody.'
The Neals' lives, now public, began to deteriorate as reporters set up a24-hour vigil across the road from the Neal home.
Sue Neal projects an angry image nearly every time she is seen by reportersand photographers. She's frequently shouted obscenities at reporters or hasmade obscene gestures.
`I cannot go nowhere where somebody is not following me,' she told areporter a week ago.
She said she believes the media has been unfair to her and her husband`because I think they are pointing the finger and they have nothing to pointthe finger at.'
As the search for the children continued, Kevin Neal was called Wednesdayto Indianapolis for a pre-trial hearing for the 1995 incident with hisneighbor.
It was a bad day for the family.
Sue Neal tried twice before the hearing to rush McGraw and Ricky Smith, whoalso came to Indianapolis to pass about fliers of the children. Kevin Nealgamely held his wife back as the incident was captured by a contingent of Ohioreporters.
More bad news awaited the couple inside the courtroom, as Judge Bradfordraised Neal's bond to $100,000 because Neal hadn't revealed his 1983 rapeconviction to court officials. Neal said he thought he was only asked todivulge felony convictions within the last seven years.
Until Sue Neal and her family can raise 10 percent of the bond - $10,000cash - Kevin Neal is in jail. His trial starts Monday, and he faces more than30 years in prison.
LENGTH: 205 linesILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS: (2): (#1) Kevin Neal (#2) Sue Neal
DAYTON DAILY NEWS
Copyright (c) 1997, Dayton Newspapers Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 27, 1997