VINITA, OKLA. -- Several witnesses, both from a family of two missing boys, as well as fellow foster kids from the home they had lived in, said the boys were abused by their adoptive parents before disappearing years ago.
Austin Bryant and Edward Dylan Bryant were reported missing Jan. 22, but had been unaccounted for for several years. El Paso County Sheriff's deputies said Austin may have disappeared in 2003 when he was 7 years old, and Edward may have disappeared in 2001 when he was 9.
The adoptive parents, 58-year-old Edward Bryant and 54-year-old Linda Bryant, adopted the boys in 2000 after Mary Hider had to give up her parental rights because of allegations of neglect.
"My lawyer told me there was no way I would win the case," Hider said.
The Bryants adopted both Austin and Dylan, as well as Hider's youngest son David, after the state of Colorado took the boys when her lawyer recommended an open adoption.
"They were happy. I thought I had done the right thing," Hider said.
Hider lives in the small town of Vinita, Okla. She said she is having trouble dealing with the news she heard not long ago.
The U.S. Marshal found me and told me two of my children were missing," Hider said. "If they are alive, where have they been? And have they been safe and taken care of?"
The Bryant parents were arrested and booked in the El Paso County Jail on a $1 million bond each. The two have not been charged in the disappearances of Austin and Edward, but are facing several other charges including theft, conspiracy and forgery for receiving ongoing financial subsidy from the El Paso County Department of Human Services.
According to the arrest affidavit, Hider's sisters said the boys were abused and tortured prior to their disappearance. These accusations surfaced earlier this year.
"They locked him in a truck, handcuffed him," Jessica Moore, Hider's sister and the boys' aunt said of one of the boys.
Another sister came forward too.
"They were wrapped in blankets, bundled for hours at a time," Theresa Moreland, Hider's other sister and the boys' aunt, said. "I was told they were tased."
But the sisters aren't the only ones making allegations against the Bryant couple. Two men who had lived in the house with the boys also claim the boys were abused. Court documents indicate a former foster child in the home got together for lunch with one of the Bryant's other adopted sons. They discussed memories of seeing Austin with black eyes, cuts and marks on his body from electric shocks.
They said one day Austin disappeared, and Dylan had disappeared about a year earlier.
The two men, who are now adults, came forward with their allegations about the Bryants in January, prompting detectives in Colorado to launch an investigation.
"The torture that they put them through, there's no way a 7-year-old can live through that," Moore said.
When detectives confronted the Bryants about the missing boys, the Bryants gave conflicting stories about where the boys were.
"The kids were with Linda, they were with Edward, they ran away. They even said they were here in Oklahoma with my sister," Moore said.
Edward later admitted the boys went missing years ago and said he lied to cover it up. However, he said he did not know where the boys are now.
"How can two children from one home disappear and no one know anything?" Hider asked. "They know something."
Hider and her sisters made fliers and took them all around the town of Vinita, hoping to spread the word about the boys.
"Getting the word out there as much as I can," Hider said. "Somehow, somewhere, somebody knows something."
Hider believes the Bryants know the answer.
"Please tell me where my children are, what you've done with them," Hider said.
Hider said she just wants closure.
"Whether they've sent my children somewhere, or whether I have to bury my kids, I need to know," she said.
Dylan would be 18 years old today, and Austin would be 15.
David was still living with Linda in Texas when police arrested her. Hider said she is determined to regain custody of him.
KOKH FOX25 in Oklahoma City contributed much of the information in this story.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM