“Life in prison is a sentence the law reserves for the most serious offenders — offenders like Henri Michelle Piette,” United States Attorney Brian J. Kuester said in a statement. “For 20 years he inflicted extreme physical and emotional abuse on the victim and her children. For 20 years she feared for her and her children’s lives. The victim’s courage ended the defendant’s reign of terror. Unfortunately, the horrific memories may very well last a life time. It is fitting that the defendant’s sentence will also.”
New York Daily News:
An Oklahoma man who held his stepdaughter captive for almost 20 years and fathered nine children with her has been sentenced to life in prison.
Henri Michelle Piette kidnapped his girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter in 1997 in Poteau, Oklahoma, according to the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
Over the decades, Piette moved them back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border dozens of times, changing their appearances and using aliases to keep themselves hidden.
