RONI MACK'S STATEMENT - 01/25/00

I, Roni Mack do hereby state that no person other than Sylvia Tomlinson has come in to speak with me about an incident that happened on February 4, 1999 involving David Hughes, Sarah Hughes and Amy Hughes. I was working on the date at the time the incident had occurred. Again, I am stating that no person has come to speak with me. I do work at the Red Apple in Cortland County on Route 281 and McLean Road where this incident had occurred.

RONI MACK'S STATEMENT OF 02/04/00

I Roni Mack am 22 years of age. My date of birth is November 24, 1977. I reside at 6477 State Route 41, Homer, New York 13077. My house phone number is (607) 749-2885. I am giving this voluntary statement-of-fact to Daniel F. O'Brien Investigator.

My statement is as follows:

I am a cashier at the Red Apple and I was in the Cortland Store working on February 4, 1999. On or about 5:00 pm on that day I stepped out in front of the store and caught a glimpse of a vehicle going through the parking lot. Then I saw the same vehicle go through the parking lot again. It was a dark colored vehicle like, blue or green. A woman was driving the car.

I went back into the store and there was a customer, which I now know as David Hughes, who was getting a cup of coffee. He had markings on his hand like he had a skin disorder or something. I noticed it when he reached out to get paper towels. There was a little girl standing close behind him. She was kind of like saying, by way of her mannerism: Protect me Daddy. She was in that kind of a pose. Both David Hughes and the little girl seemed upset and in a hurry.

I have not been contacted or interviewed by any Law Enforcement Agency.

In the store that day I heard an employee of Red Apple by the name of Ed (no last name) say, "There was a lady in the parking lot with a shot gun in her car."

Ed used to work at the Red Apple to the best of my knowledge.

JANE CLAFLIN'S STATEMENT OF 1/08/00

To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Alberta Jane Claflin and I had Sarah and Harriet Hughes in my Day Care. I am enclosing a few happenings that happened while they were in our care.

When the girls first started here, they appeared to be afraid of something and we didn't know what it was until they were her for a while. When they started to relax they began to voice their opinions about going to their mother for visitation. They would get very upset. Their personality would change completely and the anger would really come out.

When the girls had chicken pox, Sarah was very sick with them and their dad said they had to go to their mom's. I questioned why would the mother expect them to go 40 miles to her home knowing how sick Sarah was. Her dad said it doesn't matter how sick they are she will still make them go as that is how she is.

The mother had a younger child at her home and she made the girls go as sick as they were.

The girls were made to show the mother where I lived. She seemed to cause trouble for all of their baby sitters just to make it hard on their father.

Sarah said her mother abused them and did bad things to them.

Sarah said her mother kept her up till 2 am in the morning cleaning her dirty house.

Sarah was made to eat garbage food while Harriet ate good food.

One visit the mother kept the girls and made them hide in different places so she could keep them. The girls missed 3 days of school and their dad missed work until he had the police go and get the girls. He stopped here so I could see the shape they were in. I have never seen children so filthy. They looked so bad it made me sick to my stomach.

One weekend she brought the girls home and showed them a gun she had on the back seat of the car covered with a blanket and told the girls she was going to kill their dad.

The grandmother on the mother's side called me. She didn't have one kind word to say about their dad. I could not understand how she could say the things she did, knowing how great David was with his children. I had to hang up the phone as I told her I did not need to talk to her and did not want to hear her crazy talk.

These children are so happy with their dad- why is the court allowing this to go on? All the money in the world can not buy LOVE or HAPPINESS and the girls have both with their dad.

LINNEA CAIN'S STATEMENT OF 02/04/00

I, Linnea Cain am 41 years of age. My date of birth is January 20, 1959. I reside at 4 Brookside Drive, Dryden, New York 13053. My home phone number is (607) 844-8187. I am giving this voluntary statement-of-fact to Daniel F. O'Brien, Investigator

My statement is as follows:

My husband and I knew the Hughes family very well. We saw the children daily. The Hughes girls, Harriet and Sarah lived across the street. Our families knew each other.

Harriet would tell me, "Mommy does not treat us very nice when we go to visit her. Mommy makes us do things we don't like to do. Mommy is getting really weird." Harriet told me that her mother had a gun and its getting really scary. The kids were intimidated. Both children hated to visit their mother. They dreaded these visits. When they came back from their visits, they were not happy kids. They were typically irritable and angry.

Sarah would say "Mom would push my head into a wall." She said her mother would make them do chores late at night. The mother would make them walk up and down stairs like a method of torture.

Sara told me her mother made her look at magazines she didn't like and do things she didn't like to do. Her boyfriend was present when those things went on.

The kids would talk about how evil their mother was. The mother would lock Sarah in rooms and threaten to shoot David Hughes. One time while being locked in a closet, Sarah's hands started to bleed from banging on the door and trying to get out.

Sara told me her mother was abusing both herself and Harriet physically, mentally and sexually.

I am a Residential Counselor at the Children's Center, Dryden site, 7 Evergreen Street.

I have not been contacted or interviewed by any Law Enforcement Agency.

This is a correct statement to the best of my knowledge.

JANE CLAFLIN'S STATEMENT OF 02/03/00

I, A. Jane Claflin am 69 years of age. My date of birth is December 19, 1930. I reside at 1841 Route 13, Dryden road, Freeville, New York, 13068. My home phone number is (607) 347-4315. I am giving this voluntary statement-of-fact to Daniel F. O'Brien Investigzator.

My statement is as follows:

Sarah Hughes told me that her mother, Amy Hughes, made her work til 2:00 a.m. cleaning the dirty house. I also heard from Ellen Sears that their mother went to a meeting at school and embarrassed her half to death. Sarah also told me that her mother made her dress in front of her so she could look at her. Mrs. Hughes kept both girls out of school for three days because she was hiding them from David Hughes. This was around December, 1999,

Sarah Hughes told me that her mother threatened to kill their father Mr. David Hughes. She said her mother had a gun on the back seat of the car covered with a blanket.

I have not been contacted by any law enforcement agency.

This is a true and correct statement to the best of my knowledge.

DOROTHY BAKER'S STATEMENT OF 03/08/00

I, Dorothy Baker, am 68 years of age. I was born on December 12, 1931. I presently reside at 3 Brookside Drive Dryden, NY 13053. My phone number is 607/ 844-5150. I am giving this statement-of-fact to Daniel F. O'Brien Investigations. My statement is as follows:

When David Hughes was living in Dryden, I lived next door. His daughters, Harriett and Sarah came over to my house to play with my grandson, Andrew. David Hughes and I talked quite a bit and I could tell he was an excellent father. I can remember David teaching Harriett and Sarah how to ride their bikes.

Every morning David had the girls ready for school and always took good care of them.

I can remember that Amy Hughes came to pick up the girls on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. Harriett and Sarah would start crying when they were told to go and get in Amy's car. I could see that the girls were afraid of their mother, Amy Hughes. I heard the girls say that they did not want to go with their mother. In fact Amy did not get out of the car until David convinced the girls that they had to go with their mother.

One time David Hughes came over to use the telephone because his car would not start. Sarah said, "We don't have a phone because my mother said she is going to shoot us." I asked David why he didn't have a phone and he said because their mother calls all the time and harasses the girls and he didn't want the kids to hear that.

Those girls did not want to go with their mother at anytime, and they just did not want to go with her. You could tell they hated their mother.

One time Harriett ran to the back of the house when it was time for her to go with her mother when she came to get them.