Brothers' niece told police about their cache of child pornography

SEATTLE — Three brothers in their 70s and 80s have been arrested in Seattle for allegedly possessing images of child-sex abuse with police still investigating them, according to Seattle Police Department.

82-year-old Charles Emery, 80-year-old Thomas Emery and 79-year-old Edwin Emery were charged Monday with two counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexual conduct.

Edwin's twin sister, Edna, spoke by telephone just a day after she got the news.

"I still haven't gotten over the shock of it," she said.

She said she was shocked over what Seattle police found inside the house where her three brothers lived. It led them to arrest her brothers, Charles, Thomas and Edwin, her twin, on suspicion of child sexual exploitation.

She says her daughter was acting as executor for their oldest brother's estate.  That is when she made the terrible discovery.

"She was in Charles' room," Edna said of her daughter. "And I guess she was going through the boxes and stuff to see what was in them.  And she found these little shoes and stuff."

She says she thought Charles might be innocent. He is 82, suffering from dementia. But her daughter told her she was not going to keep quiet.

"She said, 'I don't know if the other two were involved or not," Edna said.  " 'But I am going to tell the police."

She was asked whether her daughter said she was going to tell the police.

"Yeah, she was going to tell the police right away," Edna said. "And she did."

A neighbor took pictures of Seattle police at the brothers' house last Friday and Saturday. Police say they found an extensive collection of child pornography and evidence that they molested female relatives.

"We recovered a lot of extensive writings," said Seattle Police Capt. Mike Edwards, who leads the department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.  "These writings detailed not only the sexual abuse, the interest in young female children. But in addition to that very graphic descriptions of harming and doing very disgusting things to children as well."

Edna confirms what we read in these court documents, that Charles worked as a janitor at Seattle Children's Hospital in the 1970s and 1980s. Children's officials told us Tuesday they are devastated by the news.

But they say they haven't been able to confirm that through their records. They are in communication with the King County prosecutor.

Cox Media Group