It's a tale as old as time: A teen defies parents, plots an escape and runs away from home.

The parents of a 14-year-old girl from Brecknock Township experienced all of that last month.

Except their daughter didn't want to walk on the wild side, as many teens do.

She wanted to join a strict, splinter group of the Mennonite church.

Three church members were arrested Wednesday for allegedly concealing the girl from her parents and from police after she ran away from home, with plans to ultimately take her to Kentucky.

In arrest warrant affidavits filed in the case, an unusual tale unfolds of escape plans that were to be burned or destroyed, a middle-of-the-night getaway, a change from modern clothes into Mennonite garb, a hiding place in a chicken coop and a stubborn refusal by church members to hand over the girl.

"Our goal was to find the young lady and get her back to her family, and thank God, we did that," said state police Trooper Chad Roberts of the Ephrata barracks. "It took us a little over seven hours. That's kind of really crazy and ridiculous. … It took an extraordinary search, and manpower."

The teen's father, Doug Ramsey, said it was a heart-stopping experience to wake up and find his daughter was gone.

"What they did was they brought pain to our doorstep," he said. "If sunset would have fallen on us that evening, and she wouldn't have been found, it would have walked in and that would have been a nightmarish night.

"It's like being at the steps of hell. You talk about your heart coming out of you."

The three church members have been charged with interfering with the custody and/or concealing the whereabouts of the teen, who is not being identified due to her age.

They are: Rachel Zimmerman Starr, 54, of 448 Pleasant Valley Road, Denver; Aaron Zimmerman Hoover, 47, of 449 W. Maple Grove Road, Denver; and Alda Hoover Martin, 23, of 165 W. Maple Grove Road, Denver.

Hoover, the pastor of the church, was unapologetic about his actions after the incident, according to an affidavit.

He told police he wanted the girl "to be able to practice her faith and that he would do what it took to do so even it that meant going against the common law. He advised that he is willing to pay the price for doing wrong if that was necessary."

Thursday, he and Starr, who is his sister, were in Lancaster County Prison,in lieu of bails of $150,000 and $250,000, respectively. Martin was released on $75,000 unsecured bail.

State police learned of the girl's disappearance when her parents called for help about 5 a.m. on Dec. 10, according to the affidavits.

Ramsey told police that his daughter had left a note, saying she was running away because she was "upset because she wanted to practice her religion and stay with others who believed the same," according to the affidavits.

The religion was that of a Mennonite church the girl had been attending for a few months, until her parents told her she could no longer go.

Ramsey said Hoover was his landlord and neighbor, and his daughter became friends with Hoover's children and other teens who belonged to the church. She initially did social activities with them and then started attending church with them in a building on Tobacco Road, off Route 322.

The church members "inundated" her with their beliefs, until she started to think that modern ways were evil, he said.

The final straw came, he said, when church members told him his daughter should not take a Thanksgiving trip with her family to New York to visit relatives because she didn't want to ride in a car.

After Ramsey found his daughter's note, he went to Hoover's house to ask about his daughter's whereabouts, according to the affidavits. Hoover said the teen wasn't at his home.

When police showed up at his door, Hoover told them he "couldn't really say" where the teenager was, according to the affidavits.

Troopers then interviewed Hoover and other members of his church. The members wouldn't say where the girl was, but they complained that her parents were preventing her from practicing her faith, according to the affidavits.

Ramsey told police the girl might be at Starr's home because he had overheard Starr telling his daughter she could come to her house "day or night if she ever needed a place to stay."

Then, after she ran away, the Ramseys found several letters Starr had written to their daughter, outlining a plan for the teen to leave her home in the middle of the night without her parents' knowledge. Starr later admitted to the correspondence, according to the affidavits.

"This included detailed instructions as well as instructions to burn, destroy or hide these letters," according to the affidavits.

It turned out that the teen was not at Starr's home at that time.

Police eventually went to Martin's home, where Hoover showed them around but did not reveal where the teen was, according to the affidavits.

Police quickly grew weary of the members' refusal to help them find the teen, Roberts said.

The trooper said he told Martin that the county's district attorney had granted police the authority to arrest anyone who was hindering the search for the teen.

"It came down to — it's just ridiculous, we're done," he said, in describing the conversation. "We're not messing around. We have the approval to do what we have to do to find this kid."

Martin then asked Roberts to stay on her front porch. She ran through her house and went out the back door and entered a chicken coop, according to the affidavits. She brought the teen out of the coop and to police.

"When they found her, it was amazing relief," Ramsey said. "My wife and I fell to our knees."

In later interviews with police, the teen confirmed that Starr had encouraged her to "sneak out of the house during the middle of the night and come to her residence where she would conceal her," according to the affidavits.

Following the plans, the teen said she left her home about 2:30 a.m. and went to the home of Starr, who gave her plain, Mennonite clothing. The teen said Starr then took her to Martin's house, where she was hidden in the chicken coop when police came to look for her.

Starr told police she wanted to take the teen to Kentucky during a move church members planned early this year.

Hoover told police the church would have worked out something with the girls' parents, if they could have. But, unhappy that they were taking the girl on the Thanksgiving trip, there was a decision to help her "all the way through," if needed, according to the affidavits.

Ramsey said his family moved out of their home two days after the incident and now lives in Parkesburg. His daughter immediately changed after being reunited with her family, he said.

"From that day it happened, it was like a ton of bricks fell off her shoulders," he said. "The relief, the joy. … She said that day she was sorry. It just went too far."

Ramsey said he is angry that church members tried to take away his daughter.

"I'll never forget the expression on my wife's face when she woke me up that morning," he said.

Starr was charged with interference with the custody of children and criminal conspiracy in the concealment of the whereabouts of a child.

Hoover was charged with criminal conspiracy in the concealment of the whereabouts of a child.

Martin was charged with criminal conspiracy in the concealment of the whereabouts of a child.

cstauffer@lnpnews.com