The Six-Year-Old Boy Got Sick of His Parents’ Abuse and Ran Away.

Gary Ray Hose lived with his mother, stepfather, and siblings near Cave Creek Road and Greenway Road, in Phoenix, Arizona, in the 1970s. Gary had a twin brother named Jerry, as well as an older brother named Guy, and a younger brother, Jeff- all four brothers attended Campo Bello Elementary School.

The family shared a modest house, but not many people outside of the home knew what was happening within the four walls- the young boys were being abused, beaten, and tortured by their mother and stepfather, Charlene and Walter Hose. Guy recalled that his two younger brothers got the brunt of the abuse, saying this to Phoenix New Times:

”Our stepdad was abusive in the extent he went a little crazy with the belt. But it was our mother who was responsible for the broken bones, beatings, the hospitalization, and the internal bleeding. I was beat, but I got a fraction of what the twins got. It was horrific what the twins went through."

While Jerry was more passive and quiet, Gary was known to be a bit more defiant with his parents. His parent's response to his defiance was to lock him inside of a closet much of the time, at only 6 years old. On the night of April 30, 1974, Gary, sick of the abuse, ran away from his home. The police found the young boy, returned him to his parents, and left.

Guy, who was woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of screaming, got up to see what the commotion was- when he got into the living room, Guy saw Gary standing there, covered in bruises, and bleeding. Guy and Jerry never saw their brother again.

Days after Gary went missing, Walter and Charlene decided that the family was to move out of their home, and into a trailer located on a three-acre plot in the desert. The family lived there for about a year, and Guy stated that neither Charlene nor Walter ever stepped foot on their three-acre property again after they left. For years, Guy thought that his younger brother Gary “got lucky,” believing that he was adopted out to a loving family in Texas.

The family left the trailer and property behind and moved to Boise, Idaho, where the abuse continued. When a teacher at Eagle Elementary School noticed bruises covering Jerry’s face legs, and back, she called the cops to report the abuse. Charlene was charged with felony abuse and was sentenced to five years probation.

When Jerry was 14, he was removed from Charlene and Walters's “care” and placed with a foster family, who later adopted him. Guy and Jeff remained with their parents.

In the 1990s, Jerry and Guy came forward, stating that their little brother, Gary, was murdered at the hands of their mother. Guy believed that Charlene had beaten Gary to death that April night in 1974, and that Walter helped her cover it up. He also believes that Gary’s body is buried somewhere on that 3 acre plot in the desert. The property was dug up and searched in 2015, with authorities bringing in cadaver dogs, but nothing was recovered. However, the media was covering this process, and it brought forth a new witness, the Hose’s childhood babysitter.

Dora Wolf used to babysit the four Hose boys, and vividly remembered the abuse that they had suffered. She recalled how Charlene would beat Gary and Jerry, and how she would instruct Dora to lock the twins in their bedrooms and deprive them of food and water. Dora would ignore these instructions, feeding the boys and giving them water as needed. She had no idea that Gary had ever been missing, until 2015.

In fact, Gary was never reported missing by any adult figure when he disappeared, it wasn’t until Jerry was an adult, in 1994, to report his missing brother.

Another witness came forward to shed more light on the abuse the boys suffered. A neighbor of the Hose family, Mary Fields, spoke of how she would often save the boys from sitting in feces-filled cribs when they were babies, and how the children were so hungry and malnourished, that they would often eat their own feces in order to survive, and fill their empty stomachs.

She recalled how the children would call her “grandmother.” Mary would often hear the screams of the boys as their mother beat them and described Charlene as a cruel, mean woman who was severely mentally ill. Mary once pulled Walter aside and begged him to get Charlene the help she needed.

Mary even had a close call with Charlene one time, who charged her with a kitchen knife. Mary didn’t just sit back and watch this all unfold, though, as she often would call the Department of Child Safety, however, she does not know if any of her claims were followed up on.

All of this information was important to the case, but Mary also had more to add about the night that Gary went missing. She told authorities how that night, Walter came to her patio and began to relentlessly bang on her front door, scaring her and her dog.

Her husband was in the hospital at the time, and Mary was nervous to open the front door. As she was getting her robe on to see what Walter needed, he had run away before she could open the door. Mary believed that Walter was there to confide in her that Charlene had killed Gary, as Walter would often confide in her when Charlene turned the abuse onto him.

Despite the searches on the 3 acre property, Guy firmly believes his brother is buried there, stating that only a small portion of the land was searched. He remembers a time that his mother Charlene was having a “lucid episode” and claimed that Guy’s body would be found on the property, but said that the property would remain untouched until she and Walter both passed away, turning down Guy’s offers to purchase it from her.

He feels that the police aren’t doing what they could to find his missing brother, and in fact, feels like they’ve been putting off his brother's case and favoring his mother's protection. In one instance, Guy hired a company to dig up the septic tank on the property, but police stopped him, saying that the property rights belonged to Charlene, and he had no right to be there digging. They ordered him and his girlfriend to leave the property immediately.

In 2015, another tip came in that Gary’s body was buried at the home in North Phoenix, on Cave Creek and Greenway. The tip claimed that the body was encased in concrete. A dig and search was conducted, but nothing was ever uncovered.

Charlene Hose died in 2016, and Walter passed away from lung cancer in February of 2014. Neither of them had ever been questioned about the disappearance of Gary Hose, and sadly, his case has gone cold. The property was passed down to Jeff Hose, who Jerry and Guy claim to be Charlene’s favorite child, and it is unclear if there have been any more searches on the three-acre property since.

The brothers have been haunted by the disappearance of Gary, and they desperately want to find his body, and give him a proper burial.

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