Butler County release Adam Herrman
Adam Herrman disappeared as a child from the Kansas home of his adoptive parents back in 1999, although, bizarrely, authorities didn’t realize he was missing for years. Now a man named Stephen Smith is claiming that he’s Adam Herrman, and he’s opened a Twitter account to disseminate those claims. There are those who doubt the man’s claims are legitimate, however.
Doug and Valerie Herrman didn’t report their adoptive son missing for years. Authorities, who eventually got a tip that Adam had vanished years before, are looking into the Twitter account. The boy disappeared when he was 11 years old in Kansas.
According to KFDI-TV, the man on Twitter claims that he “had been trafficked under the name Stephen Smith. He provided a social security number and said he is willing to go through DNA testing to prove his identity.”
The page, which was reviewed by Heavy.com, reads, in part, “I cannot be verified by state means. I am a victim of statewide and multi-state trafficking from the top to the lowest local level.”
Smith has also made the claims on YouTube.
Back in 2015, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook, “Adam Joseph Herrman – Missing Since 1999. We need to keep the community interested and talking about this case. It’s time to bring this case to a conclusion. The profile is set up to keep people talking about the case. It will be monitored by Butler County Sheriff’s Office Detectives. It is our hope a visitor to the site could share some pertinent information or provide further leads as well as provide family members with an outlet to talk about and share information about Adam Herrman. Remember, there is a sizable reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Adam’s disappearance.”
Here is a link to that page.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Authorities Are Investigating Whether the Twitter Account Claims Have Any Legitimacy
According to KWHC-TV, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department is looking into the Twitter account that “claims to be missing Adam Herrman.”
The Twitter account, using the handle @herrman_adam, reads, “MISSING SINCE 1999. Oppressed but never silent. SILENCE IS A LETHAL WEAPON.” It was created in February 2020.
The office told the television station that it’s investigating the claims by the Twitter page. There’s no verification at this point that it belongs to the real Herrman, however.
The page has made incendiary claims, tweeting, “I have been mutilated …My freckles were removed, my mouth and anus has been cleaned with alcohol and peroxide many times. I have abundant stomach scars and the birthmark is visible sometimes, but now is mostly a red line of scar tissue.”
Another tweet reads, “I would like to advise that I have stated to all officials I want federal protection and we are seeking political asylum at this point. #AdamHerrman #BreakingNews #SilenceIsALethalWeapon #CatholicChurch #FreeAdam #Kansas #MissingSince1999 #NeverReported #NeverFound.”
Smith also wrote, “I am not ‘crazy’ I am dedicated to my freedom and have had to be for 30 years to come forward now. I have been prescribed Adderall for over 4 years by Dr. Michelle Louis, originally diagnosed by Michael A. Baker of Bel-Aire at the time #AdamHerrman #StandWithAdam.”
The site Butler County, Kansas News has extensively investigated the Twitter account on its own Facebook page. That site explains its mission as, “Butler County, Kansas, news is a site dedicated to news and opinion about Butler County, Kansas. Its owner is longtime reporter and community activist Lee White.”
A post on February 24, 2020 reads, “Here’s how I learned about the Adam Herrman Twitter account. I saw someone using Adam Herrman’s name in a Twitter handle. I saw the user was looking for verification that Robert Albert was a sheriff’s detective. Annette Lawless, by the way, is a reporter at KAKE. I tweeted that Albert was a detective and then the Adam account owner asked us to DM our phone numbers. I did and it wasn’t until I had Stephen/Adam on the line that I realized he was asserting that he was Adam Herrman. I just thought he was some guy with info about the case.”
This morning, I was made aware of a Twitter account claiming to be #AdamHerrman. The person behind it is messaging me.
The sheriff tells me he’s aware of the account & is working to verify the man’s identity.
I’ll keep you updated.
The page continued, “I found some of his claims a little out there, particularly the age difference between he and Adam. He talked about being malnourished and not learning to read and write until he was older and being kept in special ed classrooms when he didn’t need to be. He also claimed his birth certificate had been falsified and he had been punished for questioning whether he was Adam. The one thing I knew for sure: My readers know everything about everybody who grew up around here. Before long, the reports came rolling in publicly and privately.”
The page continued, “I now seriously doubt the man’s claims and I said so. Nevertheless, the sheriff’s office will have the final say. There was a case where a man falsely claimed to be a missing Ohio boy. He was convicted of identity theft and sentenced to two years in prison. Easy (although time-consuming as law enforcement DNA results take forever in Kansas) to prove whether Stephen is Adam. If he’s not, it may be more difficult to determine his motives and mental state.”
The page concludes, “If Stephen did falsely claim to be Adam, my hope is that all this exposure will lead to Stephen getting the help he needs whatever form that takes. I also hope the publicity his claim and my covering it has brought to the Herrman case will bring about a resolution to it once and for all. As of this writing, the post about the Adam Herrman Twitter account has been viewed more than 97,000 times. Channel 12, the highest rated station in Wichita and western Kansas, also did a story. That’s a lot of eyeballs on the case. I hope it made the right people want to speak with detectives.”
2. Herrman Lived in a Mobile Home With His Siblings & Adoptive Parents
According to KAKE-TV, Adam was born Irvin Sylvester Groeninger, III. Adam disappeared on April 4, 1999 “from his family’s mobile home at Pine Ridge Estates in Towanda, Kan.”
His adoptive parents were raising him with his siblings. The family said he had a history as a runaway, according to KAKE.
Authorities didn’t start looking for him until 2008, when they received a tip.
In 2018, Valerie Herrman spoke to KWCH-TV and claimed Adam ran away. “When he said he wasn’t coming back I told him good. I was upset…and we say mean things when we get mad, things you don’t mean,” Valerie, then living in Oklahoma, told the television station. She didn’t tell the police then, she said, because she was scared she would lose her other kids.
His missing person’s poster says that Adam Joseph Herrman was last seen on April 4, 1999 in Towanda, Kansas. At that time, he was age 11. He was 4 foot 2 inches to 4 foot 4 inches tall and weighed 60-70 pounds. He had blonde/sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He had some distinguishing features: Scars. “Numerous scars on abdomen, ¾” scar on inner left thigh, ½” birthmark on back (waistline),” the poster reads.
He also wore gold wire-rimmed glasses.
Details of his disappearance were given as follows: “In April 1999, Adam Herrman disappeared from the Pine Ridge mobile home park in Towanda, KS, where he lived with his adoptive parents. The adoptive parents claim Adam had a history of running away and never reported him missing until a tip in 2008 led to the investigation of his disappearance.”
A Facebook page run by the Sheriff’s Department gives more information about Adam. “Adam is the 4th born of 10 siblings. He was adopted by Doug and Valerie Herrman at a young age, along with two of his younger siblings. Of the Herrman family, he is the middle child having gained two older adoptive siblings. Adam has been described as being full of energy and tried to get along with everyone,” it reads.
“He was an average student, but teachers could see the potential for him to do well for himself. Adam’s closest childhood friends remember another side to Adam. They describe him as a young man who was his sister’s protector when she got picked on at school because of her special needs. He would never leave her side until it was time to be in class. Adam liked spending time outdoors with his siblings and going to the lake to camp and fish with his family.”
3. Authorities Allege That There Was Abuse in the Home
According to KAKE-TV, authorities claim there was abuse in the home. In 1996, Adam was removed from the home by police during an abuse investigation that discovered he had “bruises and abrasions.” But the television station reported that the parents were cleared, and Adam returned home.
Adam’s elementary school once reported suspected abuse in 1998, according to to the station. Adam was homeschooled at that point, and Valerie “registered a non-accredited private school on Jan. 26, 1998, in Derby,” according to the station.
Valerie told KWCH in 2018 that discipline “likely went too far with Adam as they used a belt to spank him and did lock him a bathroom.”
“Yes I left bruises on his legs. I didn’t starve him or chain him up like people talked about,” she told the station.
The Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet told KWCH that he doesn’t believe Valerie’s story about Adam simply running away, saying, “I believe Valerie Herrman has more to tell and she’s not talking at this point.”
KTEN-TV reported that the Herrmans continued to collect state benefits for years after Adam disappeared.
In 2011, Valerie and Doug Herrman were convicted of fraud and received jail sentences, according to Kansas.com. They were accused of pocketing thousands of dollars in state adoption subsidies for the missing boy. Adam came up in that hearing with the judge saying, “His face should have been on milk cartons.” His older adoptive sister is the person who finally alerted police that Adam was missing, the newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, both parents have criminal histories; a felony false-check case that made his so-called criminal history score higher. She had a misdemeanor harassment case.
Read more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article1074298.html#storylink=cpy
4. The Butler County News Site’s Writer Has Had Contact With Stephen Smith
Butler County News also posted a lengthy update about Smith’s background, writing, “I have been contacted by several people who knew Stephen C. Smith and/or his family. I have also heard from a number of Stephen’s friends and parents of friends. Based on what they told me and the photos they shared with me privately, I have SERIOUS doubts about Stephen’s story. Of course, the investigation will continue and law enforcement will have the final say. I thank my readers for their time and sharing of information. If you truly know something about Adam’s disappearance, please call the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.))) A man claiming to be Adam Herrman, the boy missing from Towanda since 1999, has opened a Twitter account @herrman_adam and reached out to me and a Butler County Sheriff’s detective via that account. Of course, his identity will need to be confirmed. He stated that he’s willing to take a DNA test. The man claims his identifying documents were changed to make him younger and that he was punished for questioning his age and identity.”
The page adds: “I spoke with him by phone for nearly 40 minutes Sunday afternoon. He said he’d been living in El Dorado for most of the time he’d been missing under the name Stephen Smith. He claimed to have been sexually abused and homeschooled until he left the care of Valerie and Doug Herrman and attended Lincoln Elementary School in El Dorado. According to the interview, some parts I’m withholding for now, the abuse continued throughout his childhood and involved incidents in two other states. He said he lived in Sullivan County, Missouri, for a time.”
Continued the page, “The man said he graduated from Encore, an alternative high school in USD 490 and even worked as a detention deputy at the Butler County Jail for a time until a suicide attempt. Indeed, a Stephen C. Smith appears on the KansasOpenGov.org salary database for 2014, the year the caller claimed to have worked at the jail. Again, I have much work to do to verify more of the man’s story as does law enforcement. He’s either Adam Herrman or someone who has done a tremendous amount of research to construct an elaborate hoax. The photos are from the man”s Twitter account and a sheriff’s office Facebook page devoted to the case.”
A friend wrote a message on Twitter to the Twitter page purporting to be Herrman, saying, “Stephan, i went to high school with you all four years man, I believe what youre saying for what it counts, theres alot going on here i think, this is very complex, and i very much hope this gets resolved and whoever is resposible is is held accountable.”
5. For Years, the Sheriff’s Department Has Tried to Keep Interest in the Case Alive
In 2018, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department wrote on its Facebook page, “Another year has passed and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office would like to wish Adam Herrman a happy birthday today. Born Irvin Sylvester Groeninger III on June 8, 1987, he would be 31-years-old today. We want to take the time to recognize this young man and the impact he has had on thelives of countless people, including his family, the devoted followers of his story and those of us here at the Butler County Sheriff’s Office. Please join us in this joyous occasion by sharing your stories of Adam Herrman, a.k.a. Irvin Groeninger III, or just some kind words for those who miss him dearly.”
The page continued, “As always, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office remains devoted to the search for Adam so that we may one day bring him home. If you have any information as to the whereabouts of Adam Joseph Herrman, a.k.a. Irvin Sylvester Groeninger III, please contact us at one of the following:
Butler County Sheriff’s Office – (316) 322-4254
Butler County Investigations – (316) 322-4257
Butler County Crime Tips – (316) 322-8817
National Center for Missing & Exploited children – 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)
Thanks to everyone who has been following his story. Together, we can find Adam. Together, we can bring him home.”
In 2017, the department posted on Adam’s 30th birthday, saying that he enjoyed being outdoors at the lake most.
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