Satanic teenagers vandalize church camp

By Jessica Oakley

Story Updated: Jan 16, 2008 at 2:28 PM CST

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Jan. 16, 2008 (NBC) -- Kentucky police say a group of teenagers burned Bibles and marked a church camp with satanic symbols.

Arnold Moore owns a cabin at Ruggle's Camp Ground. He read news of the vandalism in Tuesday morning's paper and came out to survey the damage.

"It's a lot of damage. They broke out windows in the cabins, and some of them here," Moore said.

According to investigators the three young men hit 21 of the 61 cottages, ransacked the fellowship hall with a fire extinguisher and defecated in some of the cabins. The vandals also marked the camp with satanic symbols and even used Bibles and church song books to set one of the buildings on fire. Volunteers spent the last week cleaning up the camp.

Police arrested two parents of the accused vandals for refusing to hand them over to police.

"It's really frustrating when parents defend their kids and say 'Oh no, they would never do anything bad' instead of just dealing with it and helping them go the other way," said Sheriff Bill Lewis.

Back at the camp Arnold Moore thinks his cabin will be back to normal after a few minor repairs, but he isn't so sure how to restore the troubled teens.

"I don't know how I'd punish them. I mean it's bad when kids do that, especially to the property of the Lord," he said.

The three teens are charged with criminal mischief and criminal attempted arson. They are in the Boyle County Juvenile Detention Center awaiting a February 15th court date. The two parents are serving a seven day sentence in the Lewis County Jail for hindering prosecution of the juveniles.