• Dow and his wife started Dow Children's Home in 2008.
• Investigators traveled to Kenya and interviewed girls who said they had been sexually assaulted by Dow.
An American missionary accused of molesting underage girls at a children’s home in Bomet will remain in custody for the duration of his case.
Federal Judge Jacob Hart ruled last Thursday that Gregory Dow be detained as he was a flight risk, according to a filing in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Dow is currently being held at a federal prison in Philadelphia after he was arrested.
The judge ruled that Dow will remain in the prison until his trial before Judge Edward Smith is completed.
The ruling came in response to a motion from federal prosecutors who argued that Dow, 60, should be detained because he might flee the state.
Two weeks ago, United States Attorney McSwain announced that Dow had been arrested and charged. The suspect, who has been on the run since 2017, was arrested in East Hempfield Township two weeks ago on charges of assaulting four girls between 2013 and 2017.
Dow started the children's home in 2008 and fled in 2017 after local police were tipped-off over the alleged abuse. He returned to Lancaster County, where he had received monetary support from churches and non-profit organisations.
Lancaster online reported that a tip to the Lancaster County district attorney's office late last summer led to federal investigators getting involved. Investigators traveled to Kenya and interviewed girls who said they had been sexually assaulted by Dow.
The Dow case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police and the East Hempfield Township Police Department.
Dow and his wife Mary Rose started Dow Children’s Home in Boito, Konoin, Bomet in 2013. The couple managed the home until 2017 when reports of sexual abuse emerged.
Mary Rose was arrested and charged in a Sotik court for aiding cruelty to child.
She was accused of helping to implant birth controls in young children at the home. She was released on a Sh50, 000 bond before fleeing.
Detectives from Directorate of Criminal Investigations in May exhumed a body of a child buried at the home by Dow as part of the investigations into the claims.
(Edited by P. Wanambisi)