i live in mufreesboro, tn. the baskin children are my husband's cousins. he grew up with their father mark and their aunt & uncles. he grew up also around the grandparents, mack & charlotte baskin. the baskins are private people, but you won't find better people anywhere.
from what i understand, just before the kid's disappearance, mark, the children's father, had taken a job in kentucky, i think it was. he and debbie, their mother, had decided to let christi & bobby stay with debbie's parents while they went to kentucky to get settled and find a home. the children were school age and i guess this was thought to be best rather than disrupt their schooling.
once mark and debbie were ready to come back for the children, debbie's mother, sandra maple, became very upset. she had told others that she believed that debbie would never leave her and would change her mind about moving so far away. i think she really thought debbie couldn't live without her. when it became evident that the move would be official and that the kids would be moving away also the maples made up the story about sexual abuse and, iirc, that both mark and mack, mark's father, were in a satan worshipping cult and were abusing the children. this was around the time that all the crazy daycare center stories were going around about devil worshipping, blah, blah, blah.
after an investigation of the allegations revealed that the charges were unwarranted, debbie's parents bolted with the children. i will always believe it was out of spite that the maples commited such a horrible crime against their daughter, son-in-law, the entire baskin family and most especially their grandchildren. otherwise they could have simply moved to kentucky to be near the children.
i've heard rumors that some of the maple family have maintained their support for and believe marvin and sandra's story and cited the baskin family as having a lot of power in murfreesboro, thus they had the "pull" to make the judgement go their way. that's so absolutely ridiculous, it's laughable. it's not like the baskins are a big powerful family. as i said before, they are wonderful people. they are simply a really nice christian family.
as stated above, it was very much a control issue. it's such a shame. christi and bobby i'm sure are hurt and confused now, i'm sure. how are you supposed to resolve the fact that the woman you loved and knew as your mother really, and has since died, did such a horrible, selfish and hateful thing? and marvin, who is very old now, they must be terrified about what will happen to him. there's no telling what the kids have been told and i'm sure they love him very much. they have both grown up with no one else to love. no aunts, uncles and cousins. i can't imagine what christi and bobby are going through right now.
